


The Pirates Covered in Fur

by TykTrope



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Anthropomorphic, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Destruction, Explosions, Gen, Gun Violence, Laser Blade, Swordfighting, Swords, Talking Animals, Violence, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 00:02:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14904681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TykTrope/pseuds/TykTrope
Summary: In a world populated by anthropomorphic creatures, a group of misfits must band together to stop an evil pirate and his army of wolves from destroying their city. Part of the 2015 NaNoWriMo Challenge.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> All right, so this is a story I wrote a couple years back for the NaNoWriMo challenge! I put very little thought process into it; this is more or less what happens when my brain is on cruise control. You get this level of over-the-topness. :p This has also been reposted over from my Tyk Fictionpress account. Figured I should start branching out a bit more and should go ahead and start posting stories here too.
> 
> More stories from my Fictionpress account will soon follow.

She could hear them now. Pirates. Everywhere. All the dreaded beasts surrounding her, ready to take her back to their lair. The goat slowly opened her eyes and moaned as she was dragged by her feet. The pirates were talking, laughing and snarling amongst one another. The goat swore in her mind and felt cold, even though it was still summer and warm outside. She was naked. And now she understood why the pirates spared her, why she wasn’t being tortured or questioned. 

“I go first!” one pirate cried.

“No, no—you got the last one! I TAKE HER FIRST!”

The wolf carrying the goat’s left leg grinned. “Let’s _both_ take her! It’ll be more fun that way!”

The second wolf laughed. “Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah! Fun! Much fun that way!”

_Shit_ , the goat thought. She had to get free now. The goat slowly moved her head and looked around; there were bodies everywhere, courtesy of the pirates’ captain. All their weapons were still lying about too—guns and swords, even a flamethrower still strapped to one weasel’s back. The goat reached over and tried to snatch one weapon, and then froze and shut her eyes after one of the wolves turned around. The wolf snorted and looked forward again, giving the goat time to open her eyes and reach for a handgun buried in the grass. She snatched it up, pointed it at the wolf on her left, and shouted as she fired. The gunshot rang through the air, and a fine mist of blood sprayed all over the wolf’s partner. The other beast shouted.

“HEY! What the fu—”

The goat shouted as she shot the other wolf four times. He fell, and immediately afterwards, the goat got to her feet.

“Fuck. Lyle and these fuckers—can’t believe they sabotaged…fuck!”

The goat rushed over to one of the dead pirates and tore all the clothes off his body. She swore again as she messily put on a black vest and tattered camouflage shorts that were too big for her and reeked of urine. Then she crouched down and retrieved all the weapons: another handgun, a submachine gun, some knives, a sword, and even a grenade. The goat stood back up and panted as she rubbed the blood off her forehead and felt around the laceration on her cheek. She started to walk around the jungle again, only to glance around at all the bloody, mangled bodies spread around the soil. The goat frowned when she saw a bifurcated weasel resting near a hut, and nearly retched after coming across some burnt bodies still residing in a jeep that a pirate destroyed.

“Jesus…can’t believe they went this far now…”

The goat walked over to one of the ravaged bodies and heard static coming from one of the radios on the ground. She blinked and sprinted towards it, shortly before she bent over and snatched it off the ground.

“Sh…pin…walls, Lyle’s got…”

She recognized the voice. The goat started to change the frequencies on the radio before she found the proper channel and heard the voice clearly.

“We’re pinned down! Where the fuck are you, Shin?! We’re getting mowed down here—we need backup NOW!”

“Charlie?!”

The voice on the other end of the radio paused. “Tutley?”

The goat huffed. “Jesus, you’re still alive. Where are you? What’s going on?!”

“Lyle’s killin’ everybody; that’s what the fuck’s going on! We’re gonna die over here at this rate! Where’s Shin?!”

“He’s dead. Mack and his team are dead too; the whole fuckin’ island’s been purged as far as I know!”

“How’re you still—”

Tutley took the radio from her ear after hearing four gunshots, followed by someone screaming. Charlie grunted. “Never mind! Just get over here as soon as possible—we’re at the radio tower up on the hill; Lyle’s got us cornered!”

Tutley closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She shook her head, wondering if trying to save Charlie and his friends was even worth it at this point.

“I’ll be there shortly,” she lied.

“Hurry up!”

Tutley lowered the radio and shut it off. She looked around the jungle after hearing all the insects and birds around her and huffed harshly. The quickest way to get to the tower was by car or jeep, and the only one she found had been destroyed. The goat looked to her left at the steep hill she could climb, where she’d end up running into Lyle, Charlie, and all the other creatures. And to her right was the way to the beach. More than likely, there were boats there, helicopters. She could take one and fly or sail her way back home, forget all about this island, about the weapon, about trying to kill Lyle and his pirates. She could go back home and finally be free of the wolves and all their nasty, sadistic ways. All she had to do was run right.

She turned and ran left.

__________________________________________

Charlie limped as he tried to move through the corridor. The weasel panted and huffed multiple times, still bleeding from his head and abdomen. He turned around after hearing three gunshots before he looked at the remainder of his team.

“C’mon…we…we gotta go. Lyle’s gonna…”

Charlie shut his eyes and huffed. He could barely carry his handgun at this point. The two lions standing inside the building were just as wounded as Charlie was and could hardly move.

“It’s…it’s too late.”

“NO! We-we can’t! He can’t get ahold of the weapon! If he reaches the weapon, the city’s fucked! Don’t you understand that?!”

“Self-destruct…it-it has—”

“I know!” said Charlie as he resumed limping. “We-we go downstairs, activate the self-destruct sequence! Take out the whole fuckin’ island!”

“What!” shouted one of the lions. “But-wh—what if we don’t reach the boats in time?!”

“We’re better off dying alongside of it then having that maniac unleash it all onto the world! We…we get the fuck downstairs, and then—”

Charlie shouted when another shot rang out. A dog standing in one of the adjacent corridors was blown backwards. He collapsed to the floor, his abdomen ravaged by a shotgun blast.

“CONTACT!”

Charlie and the other two lions whipped out their weapons and started to shoot at the end of the corridor. The weasel gestured for the felines to head for the elevator. They started to run backwards, passing the various pipes and doors inside the building. All they had to do was reach the elevator and it would all be fine. One of the lions shouted as he fell down, having been shot four times. Charlie swore and hid behind one of the walls as more bullets rained down on him and the other lion. The second lion ran out of ammo and swore as he started to reload. One of the wolves casually walked down the corridor and fired five times. Charlie swore again as his ally fell. There was no point now; he had to make a run for it. The weasel sprinted for the button beside the elevator. And then he screamed as he felt a sharp pain in his back. Charlie started to slow down as he dropped his handgun.

“Fuck…just…”

The weasel huffed twice as he dragged his footpaws across the floor. He couldn’t go any further. Charlie groaned and collapsed. He slowly turned around and sat down against the wall. Then the weasel turned to his left and saw them all. Dozens of pirates in ratty clothing, all wielding swords or carrying large assault rifles. And at the center of the pack of wolves was a very large, dark brown beast with massive muscles and yellow eyes. He grinned as he looked at Charlie and started to step towards him, his thick footpaws pounding on the floor as he moved.

“Charlie-boy,” he stated in a grim voice, “almost made it didn’t you?”

Charlie panted slowly as he felt blood running down his back. “F-fuck…”

“Mm, no, I already forced myself onto a lot of your coworkers, but thanks for the offer!”

Charlie closed his eyes and shook his head. “Just…get on with it, Lyle…”

Lyle stood in front of the weasel and crouched down, breathing heavily. “Nah, this is more…amusing instead.”

Charlie scowled. “A…amusing? You…you think it’s funny…torturing your victims by getting…in their face, makin’ ‘em smell your stinky breath?”

Lyle shrugged. “What? Don’t all pirates do that?”

Some of the other wolves agreed with Lyle, at which point the dark brown wolf laughed. The weasel shut his eyes and took a long breath.

“You…you won’t get it. You really think…think that...you’ll get to it? She’ll stop…stop all of you—”

“Yes, yes, I know. The hero or heroine will stop the bad guy, blah, blah, blah. You done now?”

Charlie moaned softly. “She’ll stop…all—”

Lyle took out his handgun and shot the weasel in the forehead. The wolf huffed and shook his head. “Guard the perimeter. Won’t be long now before this ‘almighty heroine’ comes along and tries to stop us.”

The brown wolf gestured for some of his pirates to follow him to the elevator. He pushed one of the buttons on the panel beside the doors and called the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, he stepped inside with his soldiers, and proceeded to use it to head down.

__________________________________________

“Charlie! Damn it, pick up—”

Tutley lowered the radio and shook her head. She panted heavily twice and held the assault rifle she stole firmly. She was at the radio tower now, standing beside the compound that had been invaded by the pirates. The goat looked at all the bullet holes in the walls and the shattered window and shook her head. From the looks of it, she was on her own. Tutley sighed heavily as she stepped towards the front door and pointed her assault rifle at the door. She waited for a moment and listened, noticing the few wolves that were whispering on the other side of the barrier. Tutley gritted her teeth and held the gun firmly before she cocked it and fired erratically. She couldn’t hear the pirates screaming, but she knew that they were all dead or lying on the floor bleeding out from their wounds. Tutley shot at the door and wall until she heard the gun click three times. The goat swore and tossed the assault rifle to the ground. Immediately afterwards, a wolf opened up the door and aimed a handgun at her face.

“Shit!”

Tutley dove to the right as the wolf fired. The goat panted as she grabbed her secondary gun and shot at the pirate’s legs. He groaned and fell onto his stomach, where the goat managed to shoot him in the face twice. Tutley stood up and sprinted into the building, grabbing the deceased wolf’s gun as she ran. She turned to her right and shouted when two other wolves started to shoot at her. Tutley crouched down for a moment and waited for the gunfire to cease. Then she slid out into the open, firing at both pirates with the two handguns she acquired. The goat breathed heavily as she got back to her feet and started to run down the hallway without any sort of planning or train of thought whatsoever. One of the pirates shouted and sprinted out of one of the rooms, only for Tutley to grab him and stab him in the stomach with a knife she stole. The wolf gurgled as Tutley shoved him forward and crouched, using his body as cover. More wolves heard the commotion and started to enter the hallway, either shooting or taking out their swords and axes.

“LYLE! Get the fuck—”

Tutley shoved the wolf’s body to the floor and shouted as she tossed her knife at another pirate’s head. The goat ducked and removed her sword just as two more wolves appeared and started to fire at her. Panting and moving as fast as lightning, the goat moved her sword to and fro, reflecting the bullets with little difficulty. As she reflected, the goat stomped towards the two beasts until they were both out of ammunition. By the time they were, she was close enough to slice both of the wolves in half with the sword. The goat winced after she killed the two pirates and looked down. She was bleeding from abdomen, no doubt from a stray bullet she caught from the pirates earlier. The goat picked up another handgun from the floor and started to run forward, only to freeze when she recognized a weasel sitting on the floor. 

“No…Charlie?”

Tutley walked over to the weasel’s corpse and stared at the body for a moment. The goat took a few short breaths as she crouched down and planted a hand on the weasel’s body. She thought about saying something, or even getting angry at the way he was coldly executed. But all she felt at this point was sorrow. Charlie and all the other inhabitants of the island, all the people she had worked with and were her friends, had all been slaughtered by a sadistic beast. Tutley stood up and turned away as she headed for the elevator.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured to herself.

Tutley stood in front of the elevator’s door and pressed the switch on the panel. She waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive and pointed her submachine gun at the double doors. The second the elevator arrived, the doors opened with a loud ding. She unloaded her submachine gun onto the three furry beasts inside, drilling them all full of holes before any of them could react. Tutley stared at the bodies for a moment, waiting to see if any of them would move. Confident that the wolves were dead, Tutley entered the elevator, pushed the button for the basement floor, and waited. The goat leaned against the wall for a moment and exhaled with relief. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off. Her hands were shaking, and her sides were starting to hurt more. Was she shot once or twice? She didn’t know anymore. And at this point, she wasn’t sure if she cared. She didn’t see Lyle amongst the corpses in the building; he was still alive, and more than likely on his way to unleash the weapon. She only had one chance now. She had to stop him before it was too late.

The elevator reached the basement level and dinged once again. As the doors opened, Tutley aimed her gun forward, panting and sweating, trying to find Lyle’s presence somewhere. She caught his scent and saw a few strands of brown fur on the floor, but the captain was nowhere in sight. She stepped out the elevator onto the main floor, where she had a view of the secured metal door in front of her. The goat limped towards the door, leaving a small trail of blood as she moved along the floor, and reached the keypad. The goat inputted a code, only for the keypad to reject it.

“C’mon, c’mon! I don’t have time!”

Tutley entered the code again and heard an inviting ding. The goat sighed as she flicked her eyes around at the doors down the corridor to her right. It didn’t matter. Once she inputted the self-destruct codes, it’d all be over. Tutley waited for the doors to slowly rumble as they opened up. Behind the doors was a vast atrium large enough to house a small ship. But there wasn’t a ship within the area. In the center of a series of catwalks and railings was a raised platform. And on that platform was a gray and white beast covered in metal and scales. Tutley exhaled as she walked forward on the metal platform. She had never seen a real dragon before; she didn’t know if they truly existed. But she did believe in cyborgs, and knew they had the technology to create a beast similar to a dragon. Tutley approached the gargantuan dormant beast that was large enough to swallow a school bus whole and winced. She was bleeding more now; without any medical treatment, she’d surely perish. But the goat knew her job. Her wounds weren’t important. Killing this dragon was. Tutley gritted her teeth as she approached the terminal. This all had to end. _Now_.

Tutley heard three shots and stumbled. She thought she tripped over her own feet, but when she looked down, she noticed that much more blood was running down her chest and stomach. The goat whimpered as she looked over her shoulder, and spotted Lyle standing on the same platform holding a handgun. All the goat could do was fall and drop her weapon. She landed hard and started to whimper and cough as the warm blood started to flow from her body. The goat gritted her teeth and tried to drag herself across the platform. She only managed to move one inch before her body shut down and Tutley stopped moving. She blinked twice as she heard footsteps behind her. Lyle’s scent started to fill her nose again, almost to a point where it was nauseating. The brown wolf casually walked in front of her and twirled his handgun. He looked over his shoulder and grinned at her, moments before he leaned against the railing of the platform.

“Wake it up,” Lyle barked.

More creatures walked past Tutley. The scent of a tortoise and a raccoon filled her lungs now; both of them were dressed different, clad in military gear and even combat boots and vests. Another wolf walked past her, intentionally stepping on her back just to make her groan and feel more pain. The goat panted a few times as the second wolf laughed at her wickedly. The last creature was a shirtless heavyset white ram whose belly hung over the waistband of his shorts. The ram looked down at the goat and snorted at her while Lyle continued to stare. 

“How long will it take, Marcus?”

“Don’t rush me,” the tortoise squeaked. “You want the dragon awake, I’ll wake him up.”

“Just get it done, Marcus.”

Lyle brandished his handgun near Tutley, curious to see what she planned on doing. The goat started to drag her body along the metal floor again, only moving half an inch this time. Lyle chuckled softly and grinned, moments before he crouched down. He tossed his handgun on the floor, only inches away from the goat’s body. Tutley stared at him. The brown wolf gestured towards the pistol.

“Go on then.”

Tutley couldn’t die. Not here, not like this. All she needed were two bullets: one to end Lyle’s life, and one to take out the turtle before he finished activating the weapon. The goat groaned with much effort as she dragged herself forward a few more inches, just far enough to get to the gun. She whimpered and stretched her arm forward; she grazed the butt of the gun with the tips of her fingers. It was _right there_ , so close to her reach. Lyle walked up to the goat and wagged his tail. Then he moved his footpaw forward, stepped on the gun, and then scooted it backwards so it was out of the goat’s reach again. He looked down at Tutley again with the same shit-eating grin while Tutley looked as if she wanted to shout profanity at him. But she ignored his grin and kept moving until she was at the gun again. This time she grabbed it before Lyle managed to move it away.

“Ooh, good job! You finally reached it! Now then,”

Lyle removed his hatchet and chopped off Tutley’s hand with one hard strike. The goat shouted in pain as her hand was severed, the fingers still clutching the gun. Tutley whimpered as her eyes watered whilst Lyle sighed in a bored tone and scratched his back.

“Anytime now, Marcus,” he growled.

“Shut yer mouth! I’m almost there!”

Lyle nonchalantly sat down on Tutley’s back, making the goat grunt. She sobbed twice and started to shake, going into shock. The wolf leaned forward, pried the fingers from the pistol, and carried it in his own paw. Then he pressed the barrel of the gun on the back of the goat’s skull and chuckled.

“Last words?”

Tutley opened her watery eyes and huffed twice. “…Fuck you. You…you won’t get—”

Lyle squeezed the trigger, silencing Tutley permanently as he sent a bullet into her brain. The other four pirates in the atrium glanced at Lyle, who now had blood all over his face. The brown wolf licked his lips and stood up while Marcus turned around and resumed his work.

“Almost…there! It should be live now!”

The five pirates kept their distance after hearing two whirs. The metal dragon’s eyes shot open instantly, revealing two glowing red eyes. The dragon snorted twice, its snout flaring like a common animal’s nose would. Lyle wagged his tail furiously as the metal beast woke up and started to stretch its wings.

“Holy fuck,” the ram muttered.

“It worked…the son of a bitch is up!” the raccoon shouted.

Lyle stomped over to the metal creature, ignoring the tortoise as he tried to stop him.

“Whoa, whoa, hold up, Captain! We don’t know—”

“Get outta my way,” he snarled, shoving Marcus away.

Lyle walked onto the circular platform the dragon was resting on. The second Lyle got close, the dragon stood on all four legs, jerked its head at the wolf, and snapped at him. Lyle instinctively backed away and chuckled.

“Ohhhhh, lookit! Feisty li’l fella, ain’t he?!”

“Captain, maybe we should try to figure out how this thing works before—”

“It breathes fire. It eats people. All I need to know,” Lyle said.

Lyle crept towards the dragon more slowly this time around. The dragon kept snorting and observing the brown wolf cautiously, ready to bite the beast in half if need be. But when the wolf got onto the platform this time around, the dragon started to nudge the pirate with its snout. Lyle flared his nostrils as he stared at the reptile’s red eyes.

“That’s it…yeah, just stay calm…stay calm. Marcus, can it understand me?”

“It hasn’t killed you yet. I’m assuming it’s either playing nice or toying with you.”

“Hmm…we’ll assume the former.”

Lyle reached forward and planted a paw on the dragon’s muzzle. It growled in a low, mechanical voice at him before the canine chuckled and moved his paw around the beast’s head. He steadily walked towards the beast’s hide and examined his thick, metallic gray and white scales. Then the brown wolf started to put his arms on the creature’s bulky body.

“That’s it…now hold still…”

Lyle grunted as he hopped off the platform and clambered up the dragon’s body. Then the wolf sat down on the beast’s back, looking like he was riding a horse. Lyle shouted and gripped the dragon’s scales firmly when the dragon bellowed and started to shake its head as if it was trying to get a fly off its back. The dragon flapped its wings and opened its mouth. It arched its neck upwards and roared, unleashing a giant stream of hot flames from its metallic mouth. Marcus and the other three pirates ducked as the atrium was filled with the searing heat. Lyle laughed joyously as the dragon started to spread its vast wings.

“I think it likes me guys!”

Lyle looked up at the glass canopy and grinned. “Take us up, Marcus! This dragon’s been cooped up in here long enough; it needs some fresh air!”

The other wolf stared at the captain and flared her nostrils. “But, Captain, now that we have the weapon, where do we go?”

“To Diamond City! We’ll show those fuckers over there that we _pirates_ should rule the world, not those silly landlubbers bound by their politics and ‘rules’ and ‘regulations.’ Get all the crews ready! We strike now!”

“Yes, Captain!” the four lackeys shouted.

Marcus activated a switch that raised the platform and opened up the atrium’s canopy leading out to the sunny, bright world. Lyle couldn’t stop laughing to himself as the dragon roared again and blew out more fire, longing to cause destruction. It wouldn’t be long now…


	2. Don’t Come Too Early

They didn’t care about the city’s laws, about the way the economy was, about the fact that pirates were allegedly plaguing the world, and (as the news reporters say), outer space. They knew it was all bogus, that the news outlet was bred for inspiring fear into the city’s citizens. What did the news know? They couldn’t even predict the weather correctly. So they stayed oblivious, knowing they’d live their lives much happier that way. All the beasts in the skate park knew how to have fun, knew how to party, knew how to live their lives to the fullest. And that’s just what they were doing now. All the teenagers and young adults who should be in college were skating, bike riding, and skateboarding to their hearts’ content as they traversed along the ramps and railings. All the beasts were sweating, their clothes soaked in fluids. Most of them were clothed in jean jackets or T-shirts with labels or logos of their favorite bands posted on them. Some showed off their jackets or shirts that had anime characters or other forms of lettering on them while others were dressed in simple black shirts and jeans.

Somewhere within the skate park were a small group of skaters doing what they did best: skating. That and drinking energy drinks, beer, or any other sugary substance they knew would rot their teeth in the next few years. One of the creatures, a tall crocodile with brown scales wearing no shirt and green cargo shorts, shouted with joy after flipping in the air and landing perfectly on his skateboard. The reptile kicked the board up and grabbed it in his hands before he strutted over to a blue lizard texting on her iPhone.

“Didja see that babe? Didn’t even twist my ankle this time!”

“Hmm? Yeah, good job, Carson.”

The crocodile groaned. “You weren’t lookin’, were you?”

“Yeah, I was! You were on the half-pipe and then you jumped in the air and landed on your skateboard—I saw, damn!”

Carson grinned. “Juuuuuust makin’ sure honey! Your eyes should be trained on me, not that silly phone of yours. It ain’t like it’s goin’ somewhere!”

The lizard smirked. “It’s not like you’re going anywhere either.”

An okapi clad in a plaid tank-top and jean shorts walked towards the two reptiles and sniffed. “At it again, huh?”

“She wasn’t looking at my sweet tricks, Tracey. How am I supposed to know if I’m getting better if no one criticizes me?!”

The okapi blinked. “Are your limbs still intact?”

Carson looked at his arms and legs. “Yes.”

“Then you’re getting better.”

Carson rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever. Will you two at least observe me as I grind on the rails?”

The lizard huffed and put her phone back in her pocket. “Yes, baby, I’ll give you your damn bottle now.”

The crocodile laughed as he set his skateboard back down. “AWESOME!”

Elsewhere, a brown hyena with black spots was talking to his elephant friend. Both of them wore similar green shirts and long black shorts; the hyena in particular had several pockets in his shorts and some chains hanging from his trousers. He nodded as the elephant kept talking to him in a hushed voice.

“So yeah…um, we’re having…issues with that.”

The hyena started to laugh. “Tully, your dick is _this_ big, and _this_ thick,” the hyena said, spreading his paws apart. “How the hell are you guys having issues with sex?”

“Err…” The elephant scratched the back of his head. “I bust my nut too early.”

“Oh, _that_ again.”

Tully frowned. “The hell does that mean?”

“It means yer jumpin’ right into the shit! You can’t just pounce on her and go in right from the get-go! You gotta eaaaaaase yourself into it, man! Y’know, little foreplay, some teasing first. If you just throw yourself onto her, you’re gonna blow too early and feel unsatisfied when you fuck again a second time!”

Tully groaned and pouted. “I don’t like foreplay,” he whined. “I hate all that buildup shit. It’s like waiting for a fuckin’ cake to bake; I wanna eat that shit as soon as possible!”

“Yeah, you _can_ do that, if you don’t mind getting sick from eating a bowl of cake batter. But if you ‘suffer’ through waiting, and smelling that delicious aroma filling your house, don’t it pay off in the long run?”

Tully smiled and chuckled. “Oh, _fuck_ yeah it does!”

“Good!” The hyena slapped the elephant’s back. “So tough it out. The end result makes it all worth it.”

Tully nodded. “Gotcha. So you and the others ready to eat?”

“I HEARD FOOD!”

The hyena and Tully turned around once they spotted two more beasts roller-skating their way. Both beasts—a skunk clad in purple and a red fox wearing a red jersey and nylon shorts—screeched to a halt in front of them. Tully stared at the two beasts and huffed.

“Um, no. I didn’t say ‘eat.’ I said, err…meat!”

The hyena frowned and glanced at Tully. “Good job.”

“Meat, huh? Hehe, I could go for some meat!”

“Yeah, that new grill opened up downtown! How ‘bout we all go?!”

“Um, no, I got…things to do. With other people…who are not you or Ajax.”

The skunk shook his head. “We’re not takin’ no for an answer! C’mon, I’m buyin’!”

“Like Michum said, we’d love to—”

“Hey, you guys mention that new grill downtown?”

Tully and Michum looked behind them and saw Carson, Tracey, and the lizard all walking towards them. The hyena pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No, we were just—”

“Yeah, let’s go eat! Since _someone_ doesn’t want to bother giving me critique on my rad new skills—”

“I was texting my mom for four fuckin’ minutes, Carson!” shouted the lizard.

“Sure, or maaaaaybe, you were sexting your new secret boyfriend!”

“I’M WEARING CLOTHES! HOW THE FUCK—” The lizard smacked the palm of her hand against her face. “Let’s just fuckin’ go. I’m getting hungry anyway.”

“THEN IT’S SETTLED! TO THE MACABRE GRILL!”

Michum and Tully both stayed still and huffed while Ajax and the skunk led their other three friends out of the skate park. The elephant stared at the group and shrugged.

“Hey. At least we’re not payin’.”

______________________

He was finally home, and it was just like he remembered. Diamond City was still the same, smog-infested industrial city he grew fond of before he left town. The only difference now was that there were more skyscrapers and cars, and the creatures all dressed differently. The badger flared his nostrils and put his paws in his pockets, still wondering if he made the right choice in returning so soon. But smog or not, at least this was better than out there, surrounded by all that death and decay. At least here, he was plagued by the heat and smoke, and the din of beasts shouting and talking as they rushed home or to their jobs. The oversized, burly beast coughed as he continued to walk down the street with his friend, a scruffy Bernese Mountain Dog whose fur was shedding.

“You okay, Rob?” the dog asked.

“I’m fine,” the badger replied. “Just still trying to get used to it all.”

The canine laughed. “It sure as hell still smells the same, I’ll tell ya that! Can’t go two yards without someone’s musk fillin’ your nose.”

Rob smirked. “Least it’s better than wandering ‘round a country that smells like a horse’s outhouse.”

“Damn straight it is! …Although we should probably avoid the Pit District. Lotta skunks and rats moved in over there, so…”

Rob nodded. “Right.”

The dog and badger kept walking down the street for a few more minutes, chatting about everything that had changed since Rob was away. The badger glanced into the street after a taxi driver honked his horn and sped away. Somewhere in the city’s national park, a few thugs were talking to each other in secret. Up ahead, past the doughnut shop and a taco stand, a group of wolves who looked like they were homeless were drinking and chatting as well. Rob blinked and looked at the dog again as he continued to jabber on about his life.

“…don’t think I got it right. He said I was ‘allegedly’ the culprit at the time. Turns out some other scruffy-lookin’ dog ended up shootin’ that guy. Had to spend the whole night locked in that dank cell ‘til they released me in the morning.”

Rob shrugged. “Coulda been worse I suppose. Least no one tried to ass-rape you at the time.” 

“True, true. Hey, you wanna stop at the Macabre Grill? It’s one of those new restaurants in town; they got a whole selection of grilled meats there, even stuff for vegetarians!”

Rob grinned. “I just got back home. You bet your ass I wanna eat at a place like that!”

“Cool. We’ll just take a bus and head on over there.”

__________________

She folded her arms and shook her head. She told him over and over again not to mix all his food together. And like always, he didn’t listen. And now the boar was stinking up the bathroom when they should be heading back to work now. Oh well, she thought. That’s what his fat ass gets. The kangaroo leaned up against the wall of the restaurant and sighed heavily, still waiting impatiently. She didn’t even wanna come here; all the grilled food in the place sucked. All the meat was always burnt and had the charcoal flavor to it, all their vegetarian choices seemed bland or too crunchy, and the drinks tasted like store-bought soda that had been concocted inside a trash bin. But her coworker always enjoyed coming here and stuffing his face, so she threw him a bone and let the boar eat here. The kangaroo looked to her left and saw everyone eating or watching the TV; a badger and Berner were dining together; a group of skaters were all crammed around a circular table; some off-duty police officers were having a light snack. Well, maybe she wasn’t a fan of her job. Maybe she disliked how much of a slob her coworker could be. But at least she enjoyed meeting all these colorful beasts. The bathroom door burst open, and a black boar in a damp uniform stepped out, exhaling.

“Goddamn…better not go in there for an hour!”

The kangaroo blinked. “That’s the men’s room, dumbass!”

The boar blinked. “Oh, right. So, you wanna get a quick snack before we head back?”

The kangaroo’s eyes grew wide. “You just dropped a shit-grenade in there and you’re hungry again?!”

The boar shrugged. “Hey, I’m empty now. Gotta refill!”

“Christ—fine, sure.”

The boar shouted with joy, “YES!”

“But I’m not eating those grilled portabellas again. Like chewing a damn tire…”

The two creatures headed over to the cashiers to grab another meal, passing by the badger and Bernese Dog drinking coffee and eating a meaty meal together. The canine sucked barbecue sauce off his fingers while the badger bit into his chicken leg.

“You want me to take you anywhere after this? Think Justin still wants to see you,” the dog said.

“No. Just ready to get back in the house. I can meet everyone tomorrow; I just need some time alone.”

The dog frowned. “Even from me?”

Rob blinked. “No, Joey. I-I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay. I know you saw some fucked up shit back there.”

Rob huffed. “Let’s not talk about it now.”

“You sure? We can have this to go, head back home, talk for—”

“ _No_ ,” the badger snarled. “I just…I have to clear my mind, Joey. I…you don’t wanna hear about the shit I went through over there. And I know if I stay with you tonight, I might…”

The badger looked away and sighed. He stared out the window and looked at the cars zooming by, along with the many different faces of all the civilians walking down the street. A family of four here, two firebeasts there, some people wearing suits, a few bicycle riders getting their exercise in. Rob flared his nostrils and smelled alluring fragrances: the grilled chicken and French fries on his plate, the food that was being prepared in the back, and Joey’s enticing musk. He couldn’t tell if the dog had skipped on a shower or put on some type of body spray, but he found the dog’s scent invigorating today. Or maybe he had been away from home for so long that he forgot how it smelled. Rob smiled widely and looked at the dog across the table.

“Y’know what? Maybe I will stay with you tonight. I’m back home, haven’t seen you in months. Everything’s so peaceful here. Heh…no need to dwell on this, right?”

“Rob—”

“Let’s just eat, okay? Then afterwards you can take me home. Maybe we’ll have a little fun tonight as well.”

Joey grinned and snickered. “If’n ya say so. Just, uh, make sure that tongue of yours still works.”

Rob was about to say something else when the TV suddenly changed to a breaking news report. The badger looked up at the pronghorn dressed in a tan suit as she held a microphone and started to speak.

“Thank you, David. It seems the pirates have struck again. Yesterday afternoon, an entire team of scientists and researchers were all found dead on an island several kilometers away from the city. Reports indicate that they were conducting top-secret weapons and may have been involved in biological warfare. What the pirates’ ultimate goal was is still uncertain, but with all these people dead, and no weapons on the island in sight, it seems as if…”

Rob turned his head away and started to hyperventilate. He shut his eyes and moaned quietly, causing Joey to lower his ears.

“Uh, Rob?”

“Change the channel.”

“But it—”

“ _Now_ ,” the badger snarled, a bit more firmly than he intended.

Joey nodded quickly and got out of his seat to change the TV. He switched it to a sports game taking place on the other side of the country. 

“Aww, c’mon, the fuckin’ Tigers?!” Carson shouted.

“Just shut yer mouth and enjoy the game. Least this restaurant has a damn TV,” Ajax muttered.

Michum and all of his friends were sitting together around a large circular table. All of their trays were nearly empty; none of them left so much as a fry or grilled chunk of meat untouched. Michum picked his teeth with a toothpick while Tully leaned back in his chair and unzipped his pants.

“Whew…that feels better now!” the elephant said.

The crocodile chuckled. “Hey, check this out.”

Everyone looked at Carson as he moved his head backwards and inhaled sharply. Then he opened his mouth as wide as possible and belched so vociferously that everyone in the restaurant heard him. Michum, Ajax and Tully, who were all sitting directly across from him, groaned with disgust and plugged their noses or covered their muzzles with their shirts. Carson hooted with laughter and wiped some spit off his mandible.

“Damn, that was a good one!”

“I fuckin’ told you to stop doing that!” Michum barked. “You know damn well the last thing we need is you stinkin’ up the place with your breath!”

“Pfft! My breath doesn’t smell _that_ bad. How else would Kelly and I make out with each other?”

The lizard flicked her eyes at the crocodile and scowled. “We _don’t_ make out, specifically for that reason.”

Carson ignored her and nudged her. “Very funny babe! Go on, tell ‘em my breath smells fine!”

The crocodile opened his mouth wide and exhaled harshly in Kelly’s face. The lizard turned her head away and groaned loudly. She reached over and clamped the croc’s mouth shut as she scowled at him.

“Your breath smells like you’ve been using your tongue as toilet paper. Either start brushing your teeth or I’m gonna strap a muzzle around your snout!”

Kelly moved her hands and Carson snorted and folded his arms as the others laughed at him. “Hmph! Fine! …I’ll go buy a toothbrush—”

“ _And_ toothpaste!”

Carson rolled his eyes. “ _And_ toothpaste next week. Okay honey?”

Kelly sighed. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna head to the bathroom.”

As the lizard rose from her seat, Tracey sniffed and got up as well. “I’ll join you.”

Michum raised an eyebrow. “Why? I don’t get why women do that.”

“I don’t get why men have the need to share their flatulence with everyone around them, but you don’t see me judging you for that now do you?”

The hyena blinked. “Touché.”

____________________________

Kelly sighed as she finished drying off her hands with the paper towels. She balled up the wet sheets quickly and tossed it into the trashcan while the okapi walked out one of the stalls.

“I’m breaking up with him,” Kelly abruptly stated.

Tracey snickered. “What? Is his breath _that_ bad?”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. Lately he’s been…different.”

“You mean obnoxious.”

“He’s _always_ obnoxious—that’s not what I mean. He’s…clingy. Possessive. All jealous and shit. I can’t go for a jog without him worrying about me or thinkin’ I’m cheating on him or something. Like last week, I was in the shower, right?”

Tracey turned on one of the faucets and began to wash her hands. “Yeah, and?”

“So clearly he hears the water running, but he starts banging on the door. I mean, _really_ banging on it; he almost kicked the damn door in. So I shout out ‘WHAT?!’ and Carson’s all like, ‘The fuck you doin’ in there?!’”

Tracey gave Kelly a confused look and held out her hands, as if to say “I don’t know.” “It’s the fuckin’ shower; what did he _think_ you were doin’ in there?!”

“Apparently fingering myself as I stare at nude pictures of my so-called other boyfriend on my cell phone.”

The okapi shut off the faucet and huffed, shaking her head. “Jesus. I don’t understand how you put up with him all these months.”

“He’s…well, he _does_ care about me. He’s just not right in the head right now.”

“Still, that don’t mean he has to be all up in your space. …He’s not hitting you, is he?”

“Tch! You think I’d let him do that to me?”

“I’m just saying. No shame in asking for help.”

“I don’t need help. I just need to break up with him, end of story. We go our separate ways; he moves out of the apartment. He’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.”

Kelly and Tracey walked out of the bathroom as soon as Tracey finished drying off her hands. The moment they started to walk towards their table, a very large shadow appeared on the street outside. It was there for a split second, then gone. Tracey noticed the shadow and blinked.

“The hell…?”

The shadow appeared again, this time even bigger than before. Some of the other customers saw the shadow and stopped eating their food.

“What was that?” Rob asked.

Joey shrugged. “I dunno. Plane maybe?”

“Well, that ‘plane’ is hovering above the street.”

The kangaroo and boar finished gathering their new meals. The marsupial only had a fresh fruit drink while the boar was carrying a bag filled with a triple-cheeseburger smothered in hot sauce, onions and bacon. The kangaroo looked at the boar’s buttoned orange shirt with a yellow collar and huffed.

“Just don’t get that sauce on your uniform. We gotta look good today, Deacon, ‘member? The big bosses—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know! I’ll keep it clean, all right?”

“Good. Now when we…”

The kangaroo stopped talking when she spotted several beasts sprinting throughout the street and heard someone yelling. Her left ear wiggled as a few other customers stood up from their seats to look out their windows.

“The fuck’s going on?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Get your bags; we’d better leave now.”

All sorts of comments were passed back and forth inside the Macabre Grill. Rob and Joey moved away from the windows as the badger’s spine began to tingle. Suddenly, there was a huge rumble, a thunderous crash that shook the entire building. Several creatures shouted as they lost their footing and fell down. A few plates and cups of soda toppled over or shattered on the floor. Everyone was starting to get anxious as the screaming intensified outside. Rob started to breathe heavily.

“Please no…not again,” he whimpered.

The kangaroo yelped when something cracked outside. Everyone heard subsequent cracks from the restaurant. And as they looked outside, the creatures running from danger started to fall down, with mists of blood erupting from their bodies. The cracks were becoming louder now, deafening almost. Rob knew what those sounds were and was immediately filled with dread.

“EVERYBODY GET DOWN!!” he screamed.

The badger tackled Joey down, mere seconds before the windows exploded and a hailstorm of gunfire burst inside the building. Some of the people leaving the building were cut down; others died where they stood, unable to crouch or duck fast enough. All the noises from outside carried on into the restaurant. The screaming and sounds of beasts dying was incessant, voluminous. They couldn’t tell if the creatures screaming or the gunfire was louder; it was all chaotic din. Michum and his friends tried to crawl towards the door when someone honked their horn four times. Everyone heard a screech, and seconds later, a black SUV crashed into the building. The vehicle tore through part of the brick wall and windows. The SUV continued forward, crushing a few customers beneath the thick wheels. Panic ensued. Everyone realized that they were no safer in the restaurant than they were outside. Those who could still run sprinted out the doors or broken windows. Some of the creatures were immediately cut down by the gunfire while others managed to get several yards away and headed towards the alleyways. A large, metal object clunked inside the building, causing a few customers to yell.

“GRENADE!”

The kangaroo stood up and immediately kicked the grenade outside with her giant footpaw, then shouted as the grenade exploded and sent debris flying into the building. She ducked and hid beneath the table, just as two wolves came down from the air with jetpacks strapped to their backs. Both of them hopped into the building carrying submachine guns and started shooting. At least half a dozen beasts still inside the restaurant were cut down, including the cashiers and two chefs. The kangaroo acted again, shouting with frustration as she grabbed one wolf’s ankles and pulled hard. The wolf shouted and fell on his face as his gun slid across the floor. Carson darted forward and swiped it off the floor, and then emptied the clip into both wolves. The shirtless crocodile panted, sweating and shaking as he turned and looked at the rest of the civilians.

“C’mon, let’s go!”

“Out in the mid—” Kelly shouted as two bullets whizzed past her. Carson tossed the gun aside and picked up another weapon one of the wolves dropped. He fired out the broken window twice and ducked.

“We’re sitting ducks in here! We gotta find better shelter before this whole building comes down!”

The kangaroo panted as she darted out of her cover spot. The moment she did, another grenade was thrown. Reacting instinctively, she twirled around and smacked her tail against the grenade as though her thick tail was a baseball bat. The grenade went back outside, exploding and blowing several wolves apart. The rest of the customers didn’t need to be told twice. They all got up and started to rush outside. Michum led all his friends to the streets; all of them jumped out the window together, although Ajax yelped when he cut his footpaws on some of the broken glass. When the group of skaters all got outside, they began to notice how hellacious the situation truly was. The wolves were everywhere, slaughtering anyone in their path. Some were cut down where they stood. Others were chased like mice, and the wolves pounced on them and violently gnawed on their flesh like zombies. Then the creatures saw the shadow again and looked up. All of their eyes grew wide. Somehow, a mammoth-sized dragon had appeared in the city and was flapping its wings. All the beasts watched as the giant dragon opened its mouth and started to belch flames across the street, burning dozens alive in only a matter of seconds.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Tracey shouted.

“It’s the wolf pirates they’ve been talking about on the news! They’re attacking!” Tully shouted.

“What the hell kind of pirates are wolves who use jetpacks and have a dragon?!” screamed Carson.

Michum snorted and closed his eyes. “I thought this might happen. Luckily, I came prepared.”

The hyena stepped out in the middle of his group of friends and sighed. He removed a strange, rod-shaped device from his back pocket and twirled it in his paws for a moment. Then he pressed a small button on the side of the device, and a long, green beam of energy shot out of it and began to hum.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” shouted Ajax.

“DUDE! When did you get a light saber?!” Tully questioned.

“It’s a beam sword, jackass; there’s a difference! …And eBay.”

“So you just randomly carry—” Tracey smacked her hand against her forehead and huffed. “Forget it! There’s wolves attacking the city; we have to get the hell outta here now!”

Michum nodded. “Agreed. Everyone find a weapon! We’re gonna show these assholes that they don’t fuck with Diamond City!”

The other six skaters all found a proper weapon and stared at the wolves advancing towards the innocent creatures. Then they all charged forward and roared, ready to attack.


	3. Collateral Damage

Joey and Rob weren’t sitting on their paws either. The second they found a decent weapon, the Berner and badger started to fire out into the streets. 

“STAY LOW! WE’LL CLEAR THE WAY!” Joey shouted.

Deacon and the kangaroo nodded as Joey and Rob fired off a few more rounds. Then a bullet whizzed through the broken window, and Rob grunted when blood sprayed all over his face. He blinked twice and heard a watery gurgling noise, and then screamed. Joey was clutching his throat with one paw as blood gushed out of a deep bullet wound. 

“NOOOOO!!!”

Rob dropped his gun and grabbed Joey as he started to fall down. He gently eased the dog down on the floor moments before he carried him away from the broken windows and towards the bathroom doors. Rob moaned twice as he sat down and cradled Joey’s head in his arms.

“L-look at—look at me, Joey! Fuck—stop…Joey, please,” Rob whined.

Joey could only gurgle twice as the blood flowed from his mouth and neck. He started to quiet down as more of the warm fluids descended from his throat. Rob whimpered as his eyes watered.

“Please…please don’t leave me…” he whimpered.

But Rob had been in this position many times before. He knew what was about to happen. He knew he couldn’t prevent it. All he could do was stare and wait until Joey stopped moving. When he did, all the badger could do was stare at Joey’s lifeless eyes and the bloody mess all over his face and neck. Rob stayed still. He didn’t move even when he heard more gunfire pouring through the walls and the broken window. The badger started to breathe heavily as a few teardrops fell from his eyes. He let out a tiny moan that sounded like a dying animal and proceeded to gently lay Joey’s head on the floor.

“SIR! WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!”

The kangaroo swore as another wolf jumped into the restaurant. She stood up and grabbed a stool from the floor. The wolf shouted as the kangaroo bashed him across the face with it twice. He dropped his handgun, giving the marsupial time to swipe it off the floor and shoot the wolf in the face three times. The kangaroo looked behind her and spotted Deacon lying on the floor, his nose pressed into the tiles as he covered his ears and shook uncontrollably.

“Get your fat ass up! If we stay in here, we die!”

Rob sniffled as he placed two fingers on Joey’s eyes and lowered his eyelids. He kissed the canine on his forehead and set his body on the floor. When the badger finally stood up, his fur began to stand, and the badger began to growl. The kangaroo sprinted towards Deacon and grabbed his right hand, but the boar whimpered and jerked it right back.

“We have to go!”

“N-no…just—”

The kangaroo and boar yelped and looked at the badger as he roared viciously. He sprinted for the broken window and threw himself outside. The boar finally lifted his head just as the kangaroo walked towards the window to observe the burly badger. In only a matter of seconds, Rob scooped two submachine guns off the ground and started to fire at the air and onto the street, screaming and roaring, his face still wet with tears. At least a dozen pirates went down before they had a chance to comprehend what was happening. When Rob ran out of ammo, he tossed his gun’s at a canine’s face, sprinted towards him as he was stunned, and removed the wolf’s sword from his sheathe. The wolf’s eyes grew wide mere seconds before Rob decapitated him. The badger snarled, ducked and rolled as he moved into the middle of the street, viciously slashing through six more wolves in his way. A taxi driver grunted as he got out of his car and ran to safety, while a family of mice all ran for cover into the alleys. Deacon and the kangaroo flicked their eyes at each other and blinked.

“Err…I-I think we’ll be safe alongside him, Margot,” said Deacon.

Margot nodded and headed outside with Deacon. Both creatures started to sprint along the ground, picking up any weapons they could find and taking cover beside some of the vehicles. As they stayed hidden, the badger continued his assault, hacking and slicing wolves apart. Rob spun around and cut a wolf in half before he bent down and picked up a black assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached to the bottom of it. Rob snarled before he fired a grenade, causing some of the wolves to dive for cover. The grenade destroyed a yellow car with a tremendous explosion, sending debris flying in every direction. The badger roared furiously again as he started to empty the gun’s magazine, tearing through the wolves with no mercy. Some of the pirates were starting to retreat or taking cover, not wanting to face the badger’s wrath. Two wolves flying around with jetpacks zoomed through the air and started to aim low. Margot looked up and pointed her two gray handguns at the wolves as she fired, hitting one of their jetpacks. The black-furred wolf screamed as his jetpack emitted flames and hovered around out of control. Then it exploded in mid-air, blowing the wolf apart and spraying his body parts all over the ground.

“BEHIND YOU!” Deacon shouted.

Rob didn’t hear the boar. He continued his assault until he ran out of ammo and tossed the gun on the ground. The badger shouted after hearing a noisy crack and feeling a sharp pain in his side. He collapsed beside a green SUV, causing Margot to yell. The kangaroo gestured for Deacon to follow her, seconds before a stray bullet struck her tail.

“OW, FUCK!”

Margot nearly dropped her handgun as she threw herself beside a car to find some cover. She crawled beneath it and tried to catch her breath when more bullets began to strike the car. The kangaroo heard a metallic crunch moments before someone yelled with a booming voice. Margot swore when the sunlight beamed down on her and the car flipped. The kangaroo rolled over and pointed her handgun at the corpulent beast who was staring down at her: a brownish-yellow tortoise whose shell seemed too small for his thick body. She was about to shoot the giant beast when he clutched her paw and shook his head.

“You beasts wanna stay alive, you come follow me!”

A wolf shouted and sprinted to the tortoise so he could stab him in the back. The giant beast stuck his head into his shell and the knife broke against the back of his shell. The wolf’s eyes grew wide; not even two seconds later, the tortoise stuck his head back out and bit down on the wolf’s head so hard that he removed a large chunk of his skull, exposing his brain. The tortoise kicked the wolf down before bending over and helping Margot off the ground. After she got back up, the tortoise rushed towards Rob as he lay on the ground, panting heavily and snarling as he tried to recover from his gunshot wound.

“Get up! It’s a scratch; you’ll live!”

The badger snorted as he shoved the tortoise’s hand away and picked up another gun and sword. The tortoise shook his head and pointed towards the apartment buildings.

“That way! Follow me; I know a safe place we can hide ‘til this all blows over!”

“NO!” shouted Rob. “We can’t leave all these innocent—”

“We can help—” The tortoise shouted and ducked when another flurry of bullets was sent his way. “FUCK! Just trust me; I can get you all through this!”

Deacon nodded and sprinted towards the giant turtle. “Whatever you say. Lead the way!”

Rob was about to start shooting again when he looked around the streets at all the carnage that had ensued. At least nine fires had broken out, fire hydrants had burst, telephone poles were knocked over, and every car he could see half a mile down the road was totaled or had exploded. The creatures still alive were either hiding or trying to find cover; only a handful of civilians were fighting back against the pirates, along with a few members of the police force. The tortoise took a shotgun out of his shell and started to mow down the wolves blocking his path. He waved the three other beasts to follow him, which they did (with Rob still limping from getting shot). After the tortoise was close enough, he bashed in one of the apartment complex’s doors and led the three creatures inside.

____________________

Michum knew how to use his beam sword well. Whenever he fought wolves with standard handguns, he’d hold his sword in front of his face or body and repel all the bullets with the beam. And whenever he found himself face to face with other wolves carrying swords, the spotted beast skillfully twisted and turned as he cut many beasts apart. The other six beasts following him were all trained with using weapons, just as he was. Although only Tully was skillful enough to use a sword or axe. The two beasts stood side by side as they fought off the invading wolves using only their swords.

“I known you—” Tully turned around and struck a wolf in the head, then turned and cut another wolf’s head off. “—all this time and NOW you cho—” Tully shouted and ducked, moments before cutting through a wolf’s kneecap, causing him to shout and drop his gun. “—choose to tell me you have a damn beam sword?!”

Michum sprinted on top of a car and shouted as he yelled and threw himself into a large group of wolves. He stomped in the middle of the group, at which point Michum snarled and cut two wolves in half. He ducked as one wolf tried to shoot at him, only to blast his partner in the face. Michum reached behind and grabbed a black pistol before it fell; he promptly shot a wolf in the muzzle twice before jerking his arm around and cutting another pirate’s head in half. Panting, the hyena looked at the elephant and shrugged.

“Wanted it to be a surprise buddy!”

Tully snorted. “How did someone even make—”

“GUYS! MORE IMPORTANT SHIT TO WORRY ‘BOUT RIGHT NOW!!” Tracey hollered.

That much was true. Even with the police involved, no one was capable of taking down the cybernetic dragon. It flew low to the ground, swooping by Michum and all of his friends and scooping up a handful of police officers. The dragon munched on all their corpses as it flew into the air again, causing blood and some organs to rain down onto the street. Tracey found herself shooting alongside Ajax the fox while the wolves wearing jetpacks continued to assault them. Carson, Kelly and the skunk all worked together, fending off the pirates in a circle, shooting at anyone who got close to them. But despite all their valiant fighting, they were still no match for the dragon. Time and time again, the winged beast would swoop down and swallow more victims, crunching on their bodies and gulping them down in chunks. The number of police officers was beginning to dwindle; the beasts who weren’t already dead were being subdued or carried away by the jetpack wolves. Michum and Tully waved towards their group of friends and started to lead them onto the sidewalk behind a set of cars. Then the dragon came back down and landed with a thud that almost sent everyone to the ground.

All the skaters crouched down and took cover behind the cars as the dragon roared. The hyena peeked over the trunk of one car and spotted a scruffy, muscle-bound brown wolf slide off the dragon’s back and land on the ground beside his dragon. He whistled shrilly and gestured for the other pirates to follow him. Michum frowned as the brown wolf casually walked towards the group of police officers with a black assault rifle. He fired the gun in bursts, putting three bullets into each officer. Three, four, five went down, all of them too disoriented or confused, too busy trying to take on the pirates and attempting to destroy the dragon. At some point, an officer threw a grenade onto the dragon. It exploded and made the dragon snarl viciously, but its thick hide wasn’t penetrated. The reptile retaliated by blowing a cloud of flames all over the cop. The brown wolf stopped shooting for a moment and laughed as he lowered his gun.

“That’s right! YES! GO, MY PIRATES! RIP THEIR FLESH APART WITH YOUR TEETH! CUT THEIR BODIES INTO LITTLE BITE-SIZE PIECES! KILL THEM ALL!!!”

Michum scowled at the wolf as he laughed again and raised his pistol. He crept behind a car and snickered as he crouched down and shot a mother and son hiding beneath the vehicle. The hyena stood up and started to creep up on him.

“What the hell are you doing?! WE GOTTA GET OFF THE STREETS!” Kelly shouted.

Michum wasn’t leaving until this sadist was dead. Clearly he was the captain—or some high-ranking member of the gang of pirates. So the hyena approached the wolf as he had his back turned. And then the captain’s ears twitched, and he jerked his head around. Michum gasped as he held up his beam sword a mere second before the wolf started firing. The bullets clanged noisily as they ricocheted off the energized beam; the hyena kept backing away until he shouted and tripped over a corpse. The brown wolf tossed his handgun aside and switched over to his assault rifle.

“Now that there is a magnificent tool! Hand it over to me, and the great Captain Lyle Krinkor will make sure you have a swift death!”

Michum shouted as he curled his body backwards and leaped back onto his footpaws. He got into a fighting stance and snorted like a bull. “You want it?! Pry it from my fuckin’—OW! SHIT!!”

Michum didn’t take note of the raccoon who had emerged from one of the side buildings covered in blood. Lyle aimed his rifle at Michum’s head, ready to shoot. Luckily, Michum’s gang saved him and started to fire at the wolf and the raccoon; both of them jogged backwards to find more cover, just in time for a bloated white ram carrying a shotgun to appear from the corner of one of the buildings. Several bullets flew towards the gang, forcing them all to duck and cover. Michum swore as he backed away and reflected more bullets with his sword.

“THAT WAY! WE’LL LOSE ‘EM IN THE ALLEYS!”

Ajax nodded and ran out into the street, laying down cover fire for his friends. “GO! GO, RUN!!”

The other six skaters all sprinted for safety. Carson stood by the fox and fired at the pirates as well, downing a few racing across the street looking to shed more blood. Michum, Tracey and Tully all made it across the street first. Ajax’s skunk friend followed, and then the lizard Kelly. The crocodile heard a deep click from his rifle and swore as his gun jammed. Carson looked up ahead and spotted the ram, brown wolf and raccoon all advancing towards them.

“That’s enough, Ajax! Let’s go!”

Carson sprinted into the alleyway while Ajax laid down more cover fire. Lyle flanked the fox from the other side of the street and hid behind a light blue car. Then he popped from his cover and promptly shot the vulpine in the leg and abdomen. Ajax shouted and fell down, causing Carson to yelp.

“Ajax!” Tracey shouted.

Michum tried to rush into the street, but Carson grabbed him and shoved him back. “He’s dead, Michum!”

“But—”

“HE’S DEAD!”

Lyle reloaded his weapon and approached the alleys. He fired another volley of bullets at Michum’s gang, making them all holler and sprint away. Tully found the nearest unlocked door he could and opened it up. The elephant waited until all his friends got inside before he ran in as well and disappeared into the darkness. Lyle grinned as he lowered his gun and walked towards the fallen fox.

“Cowards,” he muttered.

Lyle stepped next to Ajax and kicked him twice. The fox still didn’t move, so the brown wolf huffed and raised his right footpaw. He planted the sole down on Ajax’s muzzle and waited. After a few seconds, there was a faint snorting sound, followed by the fox scrunching up his face and moving. He opened up his eyes and let out a muffled shout when he realized Lyle’s dirty footpaw was all over his face. Lyle took his footpaw away and allowed the fox to sit up and cough a few times. Ajax shook his head and groaned again, still trying to get rid of the rank smell. As Lyle stared at the fox, the ram and raccoon jogged towards him.

“Captain, area looks clear now. Most of the cops are dead and all the civilians either ran off or are under our control. This whole sector is ours,” said the raccoon.

“Do we have any prisoners?” Lyle asked.

The raccoon nodded. “Several, sah. They’re in the middle of the street over at the four-way intersection.”

Lyle looked at the city block and all the destruction he caused and snorted. “I don’t like this block. We must cleanse it, as soon as possible!”

Ajax laughed weakly. “Cleanse, huh? With the way your footpaws smell, I think…I think _you_ need the cleansing.”

Lyle smiled as he looked down at the fox. “Good. You’ve just earned a front-row seat with my dragon!”

Ajax shouted as Lyle grabbed him by his ears and started to drag him across the street. Ajax had no weapons on him and could only slap at the furry creature’s arm as he walked. The raccoon and ram followed him, flicking their eyes back and forth between Ajax and the group of police officers on their knees in the middle of the street. Once they arrived, Lyle dropped Ajax right near the prisoners. The fox panted and looked around at all the wolves in military clothing or tattered, pirate attire. It wasn’t just police officers in the streets; some civilians were still there as well, cubs and leverets even. Ajax winced as he sat up whilst Lyle whistled and raised a paw.

“MASKS ON!”

A few officers started muttering as the canines put gasmasks over their faces. The ram and raccoon did the same as well, and the cyber dragon started to stomp towards the creatures. The giant beast snarled and salivated, ready to devour more furry and scaly creatures. 

“No, no, my pet!” Lyle said, his breath harsh behind his mask. “You’re much too full now! You must relieve yourself, then you can feast later!”

The sentient beast looked at Lyle and growled. It blinked once, walked up to Ajax and the cops he was sitting by, and snorted. Then the dragon turned around and growled as its stomach churned. The beast lifted its tail.

“What is…OH, WHAT THE HELL?!”

Ajax turned away and covered his nose. He heard a vile flatulent noise, followed by a wet splat. Lyle and the raccoon started to laugh joyously while everyone in the street not wearing a mask started groaning with disgust. Ajax plugged his nose and scowled.

“Was that it? You spared us so we could watch your dragon take a shit?”

“Who said this was only shit?”

Ajax looked closer at the mound of fecal matter and noticed an odd, spherical object simmering in the middle of the pile. There was a clunk and a whirr, and then something in the mound clicked. The sphere cracked in two, and then a loud hiss filled everyone’s ears as a greenish-brown mist started to seep out. It spread in all directions, picking up speed once the wind set in. The beasts groaned with disgust again as the repulsive odor of sulphur and acid filled their nostrils. Ajax started to cough violently alongside the police officials, their eyes watering and their noses running. One of the cops got on his paws and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the street. Ajax looked at the vomit through the mist and was appalled by how red it was. Suddenly, the fox’s eyes turned red. He could taste blood inside his moth and in the back of his throat. Ajax’s eyes widened as he covered his mouth with one paw. But he threw up anyway, and the sour bile splattered and seeped through his fingers. His entire body felt like it was burning now, from his sinuses all the way down into his stomach.

Ajax wheezed and collapsed onto his side. He vomited again, only for the bile to get caught in his throat. He wasn’t aware that it was mostly blood pouring out of his mouth and that his entire body was failing. The fox gurgled and gagged as more blood trickled from his orifices. He opened his mouth and let the mush of stomach acid and blood dribble down his mandible and cheeks. And then he coughed, whimpered, and lay still. The rest of the street looked the same, with everyone having choked to death on their own blood and vomit after succumbing to the strange gas. Lyle paced around the street, giggling as he looked at nearly sixty corpses with bloody mouths, eyeballs and nostrils.

“Wonderful. Pure genius. It’s a shame the government couldn’t use this weapon before we did,” Lyle said.

“What now, Captain?” the ram asked.

Lyle breathed heavily beneath his mask. “Sweep the sector for more stragglers. We’ll need more prisoners for later tonight. Kill anyone who gives you any resistance; feel free to destroy whatever you want. Just remember, Dolan: have fun!”

The ram nodded. “Yes, Captain! I’ll head into the park. Geivers, you take the apartment complexes.”

The raccoon exhaled. “Gotcha. Splitting up now!”

The two lieutenants parted with their own battalion of wolves while Lyle stayed behind to admire the destruction he caused.


	4. Catch Your Breath

Chapter 3: Catch Your Breath

All the skaters panted and sweated as they burst inside a comic book store. Tully let them all go in first before he stumbled inside and slammed the door shut. Not only did he lock it, but he found a heavy bookshelf nearby and immediately blocked the door with it. The elephant turned around and exhaled deeply as he slid down onto the floor.

“Okay…I think—”

“Shut up, Tully! You’re gonna jinx us!” Carson snapped.

Tully blinked. “Fine.”

The crocodile snorted before he walked over to Kelly and panted. “Ar-are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? They-they didn’t hit you, did they?”

“I said I’m fine, just…just tired from running, that’s all.”

Carson started to feel all over Kelly’s body. The lizard stammered and jerked his arms away. “What the hell, Carson?!”

“What? I’m just makin’ sure a bullet didn’t graze you.”

“I’m not bleeding; I’m not wounded! I’m fine! Everyone’s fuckin’ fine, Carson, so back the fuck up!”

Carson frowned and shook his head. “Ajax isn’t fine.”

Everyone in the store flicked their eyes at Carson or stared at Kelly. The lizard backed away from the crocodile and lowered her head slightly. “Right…”

Tracey rubbed some blood and dirt off her face before she looked around the shop and exhaled. “Let’s relax a minute, check all our-our ammo, make sure none of us are too injured.”

The okapi wasn’t even aware that she was still shaking as she walked over to Michum, who was wincing and grasping a small gash on his arm. Tracey stood behind the hyena and held her arm out.

“I’m all right, I’m okay; it’s just a scratch. Like a bee sting, y’know?”

“People can die from bee stings, y’know,” Tracey pointed out.

Michum smirked. “But I’m not allergic to bees.”

Tracey chuckled softly. “Funny. I’m gonna go see if there’s a first aid kit in the bathroom.”

“You do that.”

The okapi turned and headed towards the restroom of the comic shop. She turned on the light and shut the door as she looked around at the dirty walls and the toilet that needed to get cleaned out. Tracey blinked as she reached up to grab the cabinet with a mirror on it. But just as she moved her arm forward, she blinked and noticed more blood smeared on her face. Tracey sighed with annoyance and rubbed it off with her fingers, only to realize that more of the crimson-colored fluids were on her cheeks. 

“Damn it,” she murmured. 

She used her arm to wipe her face off and swore when the smell of wolf blood filled her nose. Tracey took her arm away and looked down at her hands, both of which were covered in blood that wasn’t her own. The okapi sighed again and leaned against the wall, still trying to let all the adrenaline flow from her body. But by the time she finally settled down, the okapi was sniffling and forcing herself to bottle up her tears. She swore and rushed over to the sink, where she turned the faucet handles expecting water to come out. But for some reason or another, the sink was broken and refused to let out water. Tracey swore again and slowly fell to her knees. She sobbed quietly as she rested beside the sink, wondering why she was still covered in so much blood. Back outside, Michum stopped obsessing over the wound on his arm and walked over to the skunk sitting on the floor.

“Hey…Kinzly? You…um, ah…”

Michum scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “At least he…didn’t suffer, y’know? I mean, they’re pirates; they-they could’ve raped him several times over if they wanted. And, um…you know.”

The skunk blinked. “I…I wanted to go. I kept blabbing about that restaurant to him.”

Michum closed his eyes and sighed. “Don’t.”

“I’m the one who told…he wanted to go to a diner. He said, ‘Hey, maybe we should take Mich and his friends to Joe’s if we see ‘em.’ Then I said, ‘No, Joe’s is…Joe’s is shit. Let’s take ‘em to a place classier than that.’ So…I told him about—”

“You didn’t kill him, Kinz. You didn’t gun him down in the middle of the street.”

“But I’m the one who put him in danger in the first place. So it’s…it _is_ my fault, Michum. It’s my fault…”

The hyena snorted and rubbed his muzzle. “Did you shoot him?”

Kinzly blinked. “No.”

“Did you tape his footpaws to the ground so the wolves had a perfect target of him?”

“No.”

“Did you walk up to him and verbally tell him you wished he was dead?”

“No, but—”

“But nothing, Kinz,” Michum snarled. “You didn’t pull the trigger. You didn’t intentionally put Ajax in harm’s way. So his death isn’t your fault. It’s those fuckin’ pirates out there; that’s all.”

Michum paused as he scratched behind his head. “You know Ajax wouldn’t want you feeling like this. He would want you to keep going, to mourn his death, yeah, but not to blame yourself over it. It’s all right if you’re upset that he died, but don’t sit there acting like you murdered him.”

Kinzly turned his head away for a moment before he sniffled and shrugged. “Okay,” he said flatly.

As the hyena was about to walk away from the skunk, Tracey came out of the bathroom wiping her eyes.

“You okay?”

The okapi sniffed. “I’m fine. There’s no health kit in there though; we’re gonna have to go somewhere else.”

Michum huffed as he raised his arm and licked his wound a few times. “Fine. I should be okay until then.”

After Tully finished blocking the windows near the front door with more bookshelves, the elephant panted a few times and rubbed some sweat from his forehead. He snorted, his thick trunk moving a tiny bit. All the survivors remained where they were, either sulking or still feeling upset over all the damage the pirates had done. Tully walked towards one of the shorter comic book cases and put his thick arms on top of the wood.

“What’s the matter guys?! You make it seem like it’s the end of the world; it could be a lot worse, y’know!”

“How? _Please_ , tell me how this situation could be worse,” Kinzly snapped.

“All of us could have our mouths sewn to each other’s asses.”

Carson stepped towards Tully, ready to scream at him. The crocodile opened his mouth, but then he paused. Carson pondered for a brief moment and closed his mouth. He rubbed his chin and blinked, nodding.

“That’s a good point. …Yeah guys, this situation isn’t _that_ terrible!”

Kelly huffed and rolled her eyes. “Look, we’re all still alive; we got a couple weapons with us, so let’s get the hell outta here!”

“We can’t do that! What about everyone else in the city? Who’s gonna save them?” Tully asked.

“Does that matter? You really think we’ll be capable of saving every creature from those pirates?”

“Now hold on, babe,” Carson interjected. “We all grew up here. We met each other here, became friends here—it’s where we all found our passion for what we do! We don’t just pack our shit up and run away with our tails tucked ‘tween our legs. We rise up and take back what’s ours!”

Kelly raised an eyebrow. “The only time I see you ‘rise up’ is when you wanna claim the last slice of pizza.”

“Well, I bought the shit didn’t I?”

Tracey shrugged. “Why don’t we make it simple and vote? We don’t need all these emotional or inspirational speeches. Just say yay or nay.”

“Yay,” said Michum.

“Yay,” said Tully.

“Yay!” shouted Carson.

“Nay,” said Kinzly.

“Yay,” said Tracey.

Kelly folded her arms. “We’re a gang of hoodlums who love to skateboard and ride scooters in grocery stores. Shouldn’t we let the cops handle it?”

Carson snorted. “Honey, we were in the streets; those pirates _killed_ all the cops. And I doubt the military is going to solve the situation.”

Tully nodded. “Yeah. The military isn’t coming; we all know that. If this were some monster movie, the military would look at this city and say, ‘Welp, SHIT! Guess we gotta nuke ‘em!’ They don’t care about us. They care about ‘containing’ the situation.”

“Which is exactly why we should leave the city before that happens!” Kelly shouted.

Michum shook his head. “We won’t have to if we stop these pirates! Think about it: we kill the pirates or get ‘em to back off, we alert the military or whoever that the city has been reclaimed, and then they won’t nuke us! The pirates are gone, we’re all still alive, and we still have our home!”

“So you expect me to believe that a gang of beasts with no professional weapons training whatsoever is capable of stopping a fleet of highly-armed pirates that has a robot dragon at their disposal?”

“Yes.”

Kelly looked at all the beasts staring at her waiting for a response. Eventually she sighed and shook her head. “All right. Something tells me that running like hell ain’t exactly the best plan anyways.”

“So it’s settled then. We fight off these wolves, tell the military what happened, save the city, get branded as heroes.”

The brown crocodile lifted one of the handguns he stole and grinned widely. “This is gonna be _fun_.”

_________________________

Back outside, the streets were anything _but_ fun. Lyle and all of his pirates had either killed or taken everyone on the street captive. Anything Lyle didn’t like, he ordered his pirates to destroy or burn down. The captain himself was sitting back and enjoying his victory over the battle. He sat on top of a pile of dead bodies now cool and emitting an odor after being out in the sun. Lyle smiled as he observed two wolves taking turns shooting RPGs at various hotel buildings. To the wolf’s right was his dragon standing proud and tall, snorting and occasionally licking its choppers. Up ahead was a very long line of prisoners who were all being taken towards him one at a time. The brown wolf blinked when one of the pirates shoved a young female rat in front of him.

“What do you do?” Lyle growled.

“I…I’m—I was…I used to be a dancer—”

“So…prostitute. Mm-mm. Your cunt’s too tainted.”

Lyle raised a revolver and shot the rat where she stood, causing brain fragments to hit the horse standing behind her. Two pirates grabbed the rat’s body and dragged it over to the dragon, which promptly scarfed up the corpse. Lyle sighed as another pirate shoved the whimpering horse in front of him.

“What do you do?”

“Bus driver! Bus-bus driver! I just—I drive buses, that’s all! I drive school buses—that’s all I do! I’m not—”

Lyle raised a paw, and the horse looked down and stopped talking.

“Please-please…don’t hurt me.”

“Hmm. Are you a good driver?”

“Yes.”

Lyle nodded. “Good. Do the cubs and leverets and pups…they all love you?”

“Y-yes, they always have fun on my bus.”

“Fun. Hmm. Do you fuck them?”

The horse’s eyes grew wide. “WHAT?!”

“Do you fuck the kids who ride your bus?”

“NO! Why…why would you think that?!”

Lyle shrugged. “Just wondering. Makes things more interesting for me. I could use you!”

“S-so, so you’ll s-spa—spare me?”

“Only if you agree to pick up all your kids and bring ‘em here, provided they’re still alive.”

“What do you intend on doing to them once they’re here?”

The wolf laughed. “Teach them sex ed of course!”

The horse looked at some of the pirates as they chortled alongside their captain. Then he stared at the burly brown wolf and scowled at him.

“You satanic fuck. You…you can’t make me. I-I won’t allow—”

“Then I’ll cut off your testicles, followed by your cock, while you’re still breathing. And I’m gonna shove it all down your throat and watch as you choke on it. That what you want?”

The horse couldn’t answer. He looked down again and started to breathe heavily. Lyle whistled and pointed at the horse. Three wolves surrounded him and grabbed him from behind.

“Convince this driver here to change his mind. Let me know as soon as he agrees to my terms.”

There was nothing more the equine could do as the hairy beasts grabbed him and started to drag him away. The driver thrashed around and tried to fend off the canines, but one of them promptly bashed him in the skull and knocked him out cold. After Lyle watched the horse get dragged away, another captured creature was shoved onto his knees in front of him. The brown wolf smiled and sniffed.

“So what do you do?”

The elk responded by spitting in the wolf’s face. Lyle shut his eyes as he felt the thick saliva resting on his mandible and nose. He stuck his tongue out his mouth and licked the saliva up before exhaling and repeating his question.

“I doubt spitting is a job. So let me ask again: what do you do?”

“Fuck you, you dirty-ass dog. I don’t answer to mangy mongrels like you!”

Lyle smiled widely and stared at the elk for a minute. Then he turned and looked at one of the wolves standing near the prisoners trying to keep them all in check. “Pryllic! Get yer ass over here!”

“Yes, Cap’n!”

Lyle and the elk waited until a deformed and torn-up wolf jogged his way towards the captain. But unlike the rest of the pirates, Pryllic wasn’t all flesh and bones. His arms were metal limbs, and his left footpaw was metallic just like his two arms. His right eye was covered with an eyepatch, and beneath his bright red cargo vest was a furry chest with metal fragments embedded into his flesh. The blue wolf wagged his tail before he reached down into his brown shorts and scratched his thigh. Lyle looked at the half-metal, half-flesh wolf before hopping off his “throne” and walking up to the elk.

“Pryllic here was just like you: a beast who didn’t know a thing about discipline. But I trained him well. Isn’t that right, Pryllic?”

The blue wolf nodded. “Yes, Cap’n.”

“You wanna tell this beast how I tamed you, or shall I?”

Pryllic paused for a moment. He frowned slightly, then blinked and resumed staring at his captain. “You have the honors, Cap’n.”

Lyle grinned and started to circle around the elk as though he were a shark. “So Pryllic here used to be an associate of mine before my pirating days. I’d give him ‘supplies’ and he’d give me money. A simple exchange. But one day, he was a little short on cash. I shrug and tell him, ‘Hey, it happens. Just give it to me later!’ So he does. Next deal happens; he’s short on cash again. And I let it slide. Because we’re ‘friends,’ after all. Next deal? Same shit. Short on cash. I let it slide. This keeps happening over and over again, several times. And I never say anything. I never get mad at him. Hell, I stop bringing it up altogether.”

“Sounds like you’re just some punk who got played,” the elk sneered.

Lyle crouched down and grasped the elk’s antlers. “I’m not finished yet. Y’see, one day, I set up another meet. Pryllic shows up, but I don’t. Instead, while Pryllic is waiting for me, I send him a very…detailed image of me on top of his six-year-old daughter. ‘Sexting’ is the term I believe.”

Pryllic sniffed and turned his head away. Lyle flicked his eyes at the blue wolf, stood back up, and resumed circling the stag again as he spoke.

“So Pryllic rushes home, but he doesn’t come home to a loving wife and pup. Instead, hanging from his living room ceiling are the heads of his entire family! His wife, his daughter, his two sisters, both his parents—I even killed his grandfather. The old fart was on the verge of dying anyway; I did him a favor. But I didn’t stop there. While Pryllic is on the floor sobbing and snuffling like a whiny li’l pup, my wolves subdue him and take him to my hideout. When I wake him up, I don’t ask him questions; I don’t tell him why he’s tied down to a table. I just pick up a machete and start hacking. Hehehe, I think you can guess what I took from him. Somehow though, the son of a bitch didn’t die! I thought about feeding him to the crows, but someone that resilient to torture and pain?”

Lyle shook his head. “I needed him. I needed someone like that specifically for my army. And with his entire family dead, Pryllic has no one or nothing left but this life. Isn’t that right, Pryllic?”

Pryllic nodded. “Yes, Cap’n!”

“I taught you well, didn’t I?”

Pryllic nodded. “Yes, Cap’n!”

“You’re a good little doggy, aint’cha? My own little, personal bitch.”

Pryllic hesitated. He didn’t answer right off the bat like his captain expected.

“Speak, Pryllic.”

“Oh. …Yes, Cap’n.”

Lyle turned and looked down at the elk. “Y’see? Pryllic’s a good dog. He knows the meaning of discipline. You don’t.”

The brown wolf crouched down again and got in the elk’s face, to the point where he was almost pressing his muzzle against the elk’s big nose.

“But I can show you if you want. Would you like me to discipline you too? Hmm?”

The elk stared at the wolf’s yellow eyes and his sinister grin. He smirked slightly and let out a quiet, calm chuckle.

“What I would like…is for you to brush your teeth more often.”

Lyle stared at the elk’s smirk and closed his eyes. The brown wolf nodded slightly and stood straight up. He reached over and patted the elk on the scalp between his antlers.

“Have it your way.”


	5. Flight

The tortoise kicked open the door to the apartment. It was empty and small, only fit for a couple of people to live in. He gestured for the other three beasts to follow him; Deacon and Margot both ran inside panting whilst Rob limped, still grasping his bleeding chest. The tortoise slammed the door shut and locked it, moments before the building shook. Deacon gasped and looked at the ceiling as it shook.

“W-wh—what was that? Are they nuking the whole building?!”

“No. It’s just an RPG; we—” Rob groaned and clutched his chest. “Fuck…we’ll be fine.”

“How the fuck would you know that? We’re stuck inside a goddamn box; all those pirates gotta do is set it on fire and—”

Deacon shouted and fell to the floor after the tortoise punched him in the snout. The boar whimpered as he lied on the floor and covered his face, whilst the kangaroo glared at the tortoise and snorted.

“Shut up. The last thing I need is some whiny fat fuck—”

“Let’s make something clear here: the _only_ one in this room who is gonna call Deacon a ‘fat fuck’ is me. Obviously you’re here to rescue us, so stop worrying about Deacon’s mouth and start helping us,” Margot said.

The tortoise looked at Deacon and Margot before looking over his shoulder at the badger leaning against a wall panting. He huffed as he walked around the living room and felt another boom from outside.

“Fine. Just follow me and I’ll get you out the city. Should be easy for you all, right?”

Deacon groaned as he got to his feet. “Sure…so long as we _avoid_ the giant hordes of pirates outside.”

Rob removed his paw and exhaled. “That’s not gonna be possible. They’re gonna have patrols all on the streets, probably those jetpack dogs roaming around the skies, canines sweeping buildings; we have to move, and soon.”

“And what makes _you_ the expert?” the tortoise asked.

“I was in the military. What makes _you_ the expert on how to get out of this city?”

“I’m a taxi driver. And before that I used to be a street racer, so I know every back alley, narrow street, and hidden path we could all use to flee from these fuckers.”

The tortoise looked at Margot and Deacon and sniffed. “What ‘bout you two? Whatchu do, deliver Chinese food or some shit?”

“We deliver _pizza_ , thank you very much!” Deacon snapped.

“Well, at least one of you three is useful to me.”

Margot blinked. “We’re just gonna call you A-Hole from now on, kay?”

“Sure, whatever,” muttered A-Hole.

Rob exhaled as he sat down on the living room’s couch and looked around the apartment. “We don’t have much time. Grab any supplies you can find, then we gotta go. Won’t be long before those wolves show up.”

As Rob sat down on the couch, A-Hole and Deacon started to ransack the apartment, looking for any hidden tools or any form of weapons that would be of use to them. Margot started to search the drawers and dressers for any kind of medication that would aid the badger. All she found was some gauze and a half-empty bottle of painkillers.

“Here,” she said, handing the items to him.

“Thanks.” Rob stood up and took off his jacket and shirt, showing off his bare, rock-hard abs and muscles. The kangaroo gestured for Rob to raise his arms, and then she started to wrap gauze around the wound.

“You’re supposed to clean it,” Rob said.

“Hmm?”

“The wound. You gotta clean it first.”

Margot laughed. “Dude, I barely know how to flip a pancake. You seriously think I know how to treat a bullet wound?”

Rob grumbled. “Least it’s something.”

“…So. Who was that dog? Back at the restaurant?”

“What dog?”

“The one you were sobbing over?”

Rob paused and glanced away. “Oh…him. Just, ah…he was just a close…friend of mine. We, um…shared the same house at one point, same room…same bed…”

Margot stopped for a moment and frowned. “Oh.”

“Yeah, he…just finish wrapping the gauze, please.”

“Hey, it’s cool if you’re gay; I don’t mind. It’s not—”

“Just finish the damn wrapping,” the badger snarled.

“Okay! Geez, sorry.” 

Margot bit off the gauze after she finished. Rob opened up the bottle of painkillers and tossed a few in his mouth. After he swallowed, he stuffed the bottle into his pocket and put his shirt and jacket back on. Deacon and A-Hole returned with a few supplies. The boar found a metal baseball bat while A-Hole acquired a sawed-off shotgun and assault rifle.

“You two don’t know how to handle these, do you?” A-Hole asked.

“Well, my dad—”

“That’s a no,” A-Hole said, interrupting Deacon.

A-Hole tossed the shotgun over to Rob, who looked over at the pizza deliverers and rubbed his muzzle. “They need a gun too, A-Hole. Even if they can’t shoot as well as we can, it’s better than nothing.”

“I’ll give ‘em another gun when I find one. They got the bat and the two of us; that’s good enough. You three all set?”

Deacon, Margot and Rob all nodded. “We’re ready.”

“Good. Follow me; we’re heading to the rooftops. Soon as we get up there, start shootin’ any of those jetpack fuckers out the sky. We’ll find a way to the street, head to the bridge or tunnels, then we get the hell outta this city.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

________________________

The four civilians reached the rooftop without any incidents. However, when A-Hole slowly pushed open the door leading to the roofs, he growled once he heard the whooshing sound of flames coming from nearby jetpacks. There was a faint thump, and then two wolves began to speak indistinctly. A-Hole crouched down as he peeked through the door he left ajar.

“There’s two. Rob, you take the one of the left. I’ll get the right,” A-Hole whispered.

The group waited for a few more seconds. Then A-Hole opened up the door swiftly and the two beasts emerged. Neither of the jetpack wolves had the opportunity to turn around before Rob and A-Hole cut both of them down. Rob swung the door open and the four beasts ran outside, where they were exposed to the sunlight and the sound of sirens and fires breaking out on the streets below. A-Hole ran forward and picked up the weapons the wolves dropped. He tossed a modified assault rifle to Margot moments before he threw two handguns at Deacon.

“Uh, wait! Can’t we get a lesson on how to use these things?!”

“POINT AND SHOOT!” A-Hole screamed.

“That doesn’t—”

“CONTACT!”

It was too late for Deacon to say more. The wolves arrived on the rooftop—some ran up using the staircase while others hovered to the beasts’ location with their jetpacks. Rob pointed his sawed-off shotgun at one wolf coming up the stairs and blasted him away, seconds before putting a massive hole in the second wolf. Rob swore as he emptied the gun and put fresh shells inside while the other three creatures gave him cover fire. Deacon erratically fired at the jetpack wolves, his hands shaking so much he almost dropped his pistols. Then he and Margot ducked as a few bullets whizzed past them. A-Hole fired a burst of three bullets from his rifle and took the wolf down, moments before killing the second jetpack wolf as well. Rob finished reloading his shotgun and pointed it at the door leading to the staircase again. He fired twice, but only succeeded in wounding one wolf. The badger swore again before he gestured for the other beasts to move. More bullets flew in their direction as they sprinted away, almost catching some of the beasts on their limbs. Margot pointed her assault rifle backwards and held it firmly with two paws. She took down a few pirates as she fired before turning around and paying more attention to what was up ahead.

“JUMP!”

“Wait, wh—”

Deacon reacted before his brain processed anything. He saw the gap between two buildings and jumped over the ledge along with the other three creatures. While Rob and Margot landed perfectly and rolled onto the other rooftop with no injuries, Deacon fumbled and landed flat on his face, and A-Hole tripped and tumbled over, landing on his shell. The giant tortoise grunted twice as he tried to stand up.

“Goddamn it—cover me until I get up!”

A-Hole grumbled and swore as he started to rock from side to side, hoping he’d gain enough momentum to roll his giant body over. As Deacon groaned and struggled to pick up his weapons, the kangaroo and badger provided more cover fire. Rob waited until a jetpack wolf got close before he shot him in the abdomen and groin. Then he turned around and shouted when a wolf tried to sneak up on him in hopes of stabbing the badger in the throat. Rob dropped his gun on instinct and raised his arms, grabbing the wolf’s knife and guiding the weapon away. Margot pointed at the wolf and badger as they struggled but couldn’t get a good shot off. A-Hole swore again as he kept rocking his shell left and right, on the verge of fully rolling over. The wolf fighting against Rob shoved the badger against the ledge; Rob shouted as he nearly fell over and the canine kept shoving him. Desperate, Rob opened his mouth wide and snarled, just before biting the wolf’s left eye socket.

Deacon was finally on his feet, although he lost one of his handguns during the fall. Margot waved forward, and the two headed for an escape ladder and looked down. Then they quickly shouted and jerked their heads backwards when the wolves on the ground shot at them and began to climb the ladder. Margot aimed at the street and emptied the magazine before hearing three clicks. She tossed the gun off the rooftop while Deacon pointed his handgun down and let off three shots. During the third shot, Deacon yelped and his grip loosened; the handgun slipped from his fingers and descended onto the ground. With no other option, the shaky swine stood by the ladder with only the metal bat to protect him. As he started to bash wolves on the head, Margot sprinted for the fire axe still displayed in its case and hanging from a small shack on the roof. She turned her head away as she elbowed the glass four times before breaking it. The marsupial retrieved the axe and swore as some of the glass cut her paw. Then she shouted and swung the axe as another jetpack wolf appeared behind her.

After maiming the canine’s eye, Rob grabbed the wolf’s throat and groin and jerked his body sideways. The wolf screamed as his body tumbled over the ledge and down into the alleyway. Simultaneously, A-Hole finally rolled onto his belly, and immediately stood up and picked up his weapon. Rob did the same and followed him along the path as they came across Deacon bopping wolves on the head as if he were playing Whack-a-Mole. Margot finished striking down two wolves with the fire axe and hit another beast in the neck. The black wolf let out a horrid gurgling sound as blood spewed from his mouth into Margot’s face. She groaned and took the axe out with a meaty squelch before striking it over his scalp. Then the kangaroo retrieved both of his submachine guns and started panting.

“They’re surrounding us!” she cried.

A-Hole panted as he looked around for a proper escape route. He saw a building under construction that had several ramps and ladders leading down onto the street.

“Over there!”

A-Hole led the group over to the building under construction. The four beasts all stomped across a ramp leading to the third building. Deacon quickly stopped so he could remove the ramp and keep the canines from crossing. The group ran behind a curtain and found themselves surrounded by more stairs, planks, and a series of abandoned tables, power saws, drills, and hammers. The boar took a few deep breaths as he tried to calm his beating heart. He bent over and exhaled, letting the adrenaline flow from his lungs.

“Where…” Deacon huffed. “Where to now?”

“The streets! We hotwire a car and drive our asses outta here!” shouted A-Hole.

Margot blinked. “This isn’t _Grand Theft Auto_. We can’t just break into a car and automatically turn it on!”

Deacon blinked. “I can.”

The other three beasts stared at the boar. “You _can_?”

“Yeah. My uncle was a mechanic and…let’s just say he wasn’t the best role model.”

“Fantastic. You head down there and get us a car, preferably something that can hold all of us,” said Rob.

“Um, m-me?” Deacon walked over towards the railing and looked down. There were still a few wolves running around on the street. The boar snorted and started to shake. “Err, you go ahead, A-Hole! Clearly yo-you’re more capable!”

“I don’t know how to hotwire cars; I just drive the damn things. Get your ass down there and move!” the tortoise barked.

“We got your back, Deac. We’ll cover you from up here!” said Margot.

“B-but—but what if a st-stray bullet hits me? What if one of you guys misses or-or what if—”

A-Hole snarled as he threw his oversized, shell-covered body into the boar. Deacon screamed as he stumbled backwards and fell right into the construction chute.

“OH SHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIITTTT!!!” the boar yelled, his voice echoing.

The other three creatures hurriedly ran for the stairs and descended down one level while Deacon grunted and shouted as his fat body banged around in the chute. He yelled again as he neared the bottom, and grunted when he fell head first into a dumpster filled with rubble and cement powder. Deacon coughed and shielded his eyes too late as the powder got into his orifices and started to irritate his eyeballs. The boar kept moving though; he knew he was a sitting duck inside the dumpster. So he climbed (and fell) out of the dumpster, wheezed and huffed as he got back up, and started to walk around on the street. He heard vicious snarls to his right and started to run when the wolves spotted him and started shooting. He thought he would’ve been slain right on the spot, but A-Hole and the others kept their word and provided cover fire. The boar reached a silver SUV and broke the window on the driver’s side with the metal bat. He reached inside and unlocked the door, used the bat to swipe some of the glass off the seat, and climbed inside.

“He made it!” Margot shouted.

“Now he’s just gotta get it started. We’d better move!” Rob yelled.

As Deacon continued to work through his watering eyes and the disgusting, powder flavor in his mouth, the other members of the group resumed storming down all the ramps and stairs of the building until they reached the ground floor. Deacon was still grumbling and swearing to himself as he tried to connect the right wires to get the vehicle started, only to succeed in setting off the car’s alarms.

“DEACON! Hurry the fuck up!” A-Hole shouted.

Somewhere in the skies, a gray wolf was soaring through the air on her jetpack, scanning the streets below for any resistance from the pedestrians. She hummed softly to herself as she came across a series of apartment complexes that had been damaged from RPGs and standard gunfire. She smiled at all the destruction she saw. But her smile quickly waned the moment she spotted a few fellow wolf soldiers lying on the rooftops of an apartment near the construction zone. She landed beside one soldier who had been wounded from shotgun fire and questioned him.

“Who did this? Cops, National Guard?”

The canine groaned. “S…some pedestrians…big turtle—fuck—some badger, couple others. They got past us…went on the street…”

The wolf huffed. “Regroup with Dolan’s squadron as soon as you round up all the wounded. I’ll take care of this.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the canine said weakly.

The gray wolf walked along the rooftop slowly as she reached behind and removed a sniper rifle strapped her to her jetpack. The wolf crouched down and set the rifle on the edge of the rooftop, moments before she looked through the scope and started to seek out the pedestrians.

“Now just hold still,” the wolf muttered to herself.

The pedestrians were still moving, but that didn’t stop the wolf from seeking out her target. She fired, and then a beam of light blue laser energy burst from the rifle’s barrel. Back on the ground, A-Hole was sprinting towards the SUV when he heard a faint meaty sizzle, followed by a thud. The tortoise screamed and hopped up in the air with steam rising from his hindquarters. He tripped and collapsed beside the SUV, just in time for Margot to gasp when she noticed that A-Hole’s tail was missing.

“THEY SHOT…THEY SHOT OFF MY FUCKIN’ TAIL!!” the reptile hollered.

As more wolves advanced, the SUV’s engine roared with life. Deacon panted as he sat in the driver’s seat and unlocked all the doors.

“I got it! Car’s running; hurry up and get in!”

The group didn’t hesitate. Margot sprinted around and got in the passenger’s seat, while Rob dragged the tailless tortoise into the back seats. The badger shut the door, and the second Margot slammed her door shut too, Deacon pressed his foot on the gas pedal, and the vehicle darted forward.


	6. Don’t Look at Our Crotches

The six skaters were all traversing through the back alleys, occasionally pausing for a moment in order to avoid detection. Michum held up a paw and signaled the group to stop as a group of wolves sprinted down the road. Then the hyena waved them all forward, and they ran across the road in a crouching position. Michum and Tully hid behind a dumpster while the other four beasts squatted within a restaurant with its back door opened. As a few jetpack wolves hovered across the alleys, Michum gazed up ahead and spotted another door left ajar. Michum walked beside the restaurant and whistled.

“Okay, coast is clear.”

The other four beasts stepped outside, with Carson smacking as he started scarfing down a gourmet dish he saw sitting around in the kitchen. The crocodile hurriedly swallowed all the food before he tossed the plate aside and the group headed inside the next building. Kinzly shut the door after everyone got inside, and then Carson whooped with joy.

“OHHHHHHHHH SHIT! WE HIT THE JACKPOT!” he screamed.

“Not so loud!” Kinzly snapped. “You want ‘em to hear us?”

The crocodile smirked. “Maybe I do, skunk-butt!”

The gang was standing inside of a firearms shop now, still stocked with tons of ammo and new guns they could use. Carson laughed uncontrollably as he started running around the shop snatching all sorts of weapons off the walls or from their display cases.

“HEY! I call dibs on the G36!” shouted Tully.

“Pssh! My ass—you know I look good carrying this shit!”

Kelly shrugged. “Eh…I think a katana suits you better, Tully.”

“Yeah, trunky! Get that big-ass cool-looking sw…uh, hold up. Lemme get that!”

Before Carson had the chance to get the sword, Tully quickly snatched it off the wall. He looked at the crocodile and grinned widely.

“What? Thought you said you looked good carrying the G36?”

“Err, yeah! But everyone knows katanas are better at _everything_! So let’s switch for a moment—”

“Carson, you don’t even know how to wield a sword properly. Just take the gun!” Kelly shouted.

The crocodile sniffed. “Whatchu think, Kinz? Should I get the rifle—”

“I don’t give a shit. Just take all the weapons you can carry, grab enough ammo, and shut up,” the skunk replied.

Carson snorted. “All right then.”

The rest of the group collected all the weapons they could find or use properly and stocked up on all the ammunition. Tully still stuck with swords, knives, and a few grenades; Michum still had his trusty beam sword on paw, but he grabbed two black submachine guns just in case; Tracey stuck with a silver assault rifle and two handguns; Kelly grabbed multiple knives and pistols; Carson stuck with the G36 rifle, and he grabbed a second one just in case, along with two sawed-off shotguns; Kinzly grabbed a bow and a quiver filled with arrows, along with an assault rifle and a few silencers. While sifting through the supplies, Kinzly and Tracey also put on a Kevlar vest, and the six beasts grabbed some military radios so they could be in contact with each other. Michum was just about to lead the gang outside when Carson took out his iPhone and lifted it in front of his face.

“Cars, _really_? You gonna take a selfie?” asked Kinzly.

“Look at us! We’re all a bunch of adorable-lookin’ badasses—you know I gotta capture this moment! Here, c’mon—everyone get in the shot!”

“Do we really need to waste our time with this?”

“Dude, when _else_ are we gonna be stuck inside a gun shop carrying all these sick weapons like this?”

Michum smirked. “He’s got a point there, Kinz.”

“C’mon, it’ll be quick; I swear!”

Kinzly and the others eventually sided with the crocodile and got into the iPhone’s shot. Tully and Michum both posed with their weapons drawn, standing back to back. Kelly and Tracey stood side by side, either raising their rifles up or leaning down against them with smirks on their faces. Kinzly simply folded his arms and scowled, waiting for the reptile to take the photo.

“One, two, THREE!”

The camera beeped as Carson took the picture. Then the crocodile whooped again as he looked at the photo and smiled widely.

“Damn, we look good!”

“Okay, great. Now let’s get the fuck outta here,” Kinzly said.

Tracey raised a hand. “Hold on, hold up. Look, I know we have all these weapons and stuff, but we need to start thinking here. We can’t run outside this building shooting stuff with a half-assed plan. And after what happened to Ajax…I’m not so sure if it’s wise we stay together. We should split up; we’ll cover more ground that way.”

Kinzly nodded. “See? _That’s_ smart; let’s do that.”

Kelly sniffed. “Hmm…I’m not sure. We _could_ cover more ground I suppose, but we’ll have less manpower. Then again, smaller groups means it’ll be easier to evade these pirates. “Whatchu guys think?”

“I think it’s a shitty plan!” Carson bellowed. “Uh, _hellooooooo_? Horror movies? Buddy system? This is how stupid people die! They say, ‘Ooh! Let’s go on and split up! Let’s be adventurous and cover more ground!’ and then the killer picks ‘em off one at a time.”

“Well, good thing this ain’t a horror movie,” Tully joked. “In all seriousness though, Carson’s got a point. Won’t it be easier for us to get picked off?”

Tracey shook her head. “Ajax was standing there with all of us surrounding him, and he still got shot. He died giving all _six_ of us covering fire. If the group’s smaller, it’ll be easier to manage and look over; staying crammed together like this makes it hard to keep track of everyone, to keep everyone safe.”

Michum joined in. “‘Sides, if one group ends up dying or gets captured or whatever, then the other group can still carry on. All it takes is a single grenade thrown at the right time and we’re all done for.”

Carson huffed and rolled his eyes. “Fine. But if we’re splitting up, Kelly stays with me!”

Michum shrugged. “All right. You, Kelly and Kinzly, head south towards the bridge. Something tells me these pirates are gonna try to sabotage our only way outta this city. Tracey, Tully and I will head into the park and try to reach the tunnels. Maybe we’ll pick up some stragglers along the way.”

Kinzly flicked his eyes at Carson and swallowed hard. “Uh, Mich? Can…can we switch places? I kinda…prefer being around Tully and Tracey.”

“No. You got the quietest weapons outta everyone here. And I know damn well Carson and his big mouth is gonna get you guys in trouble. You’re gonna have to lead Carson and Kelly through some areas as silently as possible. If you guys find yourself up against impossible odds, _someone_ needs to convince Cars here to shut up and to walk _around_ a giant gang of wolves, not through them.”

“Pfft! Like you guys are so quiet…ah well. Least now Kinz and I get a chance to bond more!”

Kinzly shouted when the reptile walked behind him and grabbed his shoulders. “Don’t you worry buddy! By the time this is all over, we’re gonna be the best of friends! Heh, maybe Kelly and I will show you some ‘positions’ whenever you find yourself a girl. Ain’t that right, Kell-Bell?”

“No,” said Kelly flatly, with her arms folded.

“Then it’s settled. Everyone keep your radios on; we’ll give each other updates every half-hour. Other than that, just save as many as you can, stop as many pirates as you can, and if you see something shiny and expensive that probably belongs to the pirates…by all means, blow it up,” said Michum.

Carson grinned. “That much I can do!”

“All right, time to go!”

The six friends all took their supplies and weapons and parted ways. Tracey, Tully and Michum went out the front door while Carson, Kelly and Kinzly went out the back.

____________________

“NEXT!”

The white ram laughed as the Dalmatian police officer was placed on the tree stump. He looked around the National Park and started to grin at the scenery. The basketball court was in ruins, now occupied with either wolves in messy clothing or the bodies of all the pedestrians he and his squad killed. All the fires he set had burned out, leaving nothing behind but burnt cars and other vehicles no longer worthy of being driven. The shirtless ram scratched his pudgy belly as he looked at the long line of wounded cops. Dolan rubbed his left horn and snorted as he looked down at the growling dog.

“Fucker…you cocksucking—”

Dolan lowered a giant battle hammer, pressing the cold metal that was sticky with blood on the officer’s head. The ram smiled.

“No, from where you stand, you seem like the cocksucker t’me!”

“You can’t…you won’t get away with this!”

Dolan raised a finger and giggled. Then he pointed at the police officer and snorted at him. “Now see, this is why I love the word ‘irony.’ Before all _this_ happened, you cops—you weren’t the friendliest bunch. You beat innocent people, you dragged ‘em into alleys and shot ‘em, you…you shoved ‘instruments’ into their rectums. I had a brother who—”

“I don’t give a fuck about your life story! Just get on with it—”

The Dalmatian howled in pain as Dolan lifted the hammer and swung it down over the canine’s left footpaw, shattering his ankle. The ram exhaled as he rubbed his head and resumed talking.

“I had a brother who wanted to be a cop, just like you! But he was a bit stupid at times—we all are. One day, my brother got drunk, mooned a couple of police officers, dogs like you. And you dogs responded by beating him into the ground, and taking turns shoving nightsticks up his ass.”

Dolan sighed and shook his head. “You’ve any idea what it’s like to wake up at two in the morning, to get a phone call that your brother died because some cops ruptured his intestines?”

“If your brother was…was anything like you, then I’m glad he’s dead!”

The ram placed the hammer against the canine’s skull again and grinned. “After I found out what you cops did, I told you y’all wouldn’t get away with it. And the cop who started the beating just said to me, ‘We already did.’ So, uh, what’d you say to me again earlier? Just about a minute ago?”

“You won’t get away—”

Dolan held up a hand, and the Dalmatian shut his mouth. Then the ram chuckled so much his big belly wobbled.

“Well, guess what? We already did.”

Dolan raised his hammer high. And then the cop screamed, seconds before Dolan slammed the hammer down and crushed the canine’s head. Blood and brain fragments sprayed in various directions, splattering all over the ground and a few other pirates. The ram shoved the dog’s body off the stump and sighed.

“NEXT!”

As one of the wolves brought another cop forward, Dolan’s radio chirped. The ram exhaled and picked up the device.

“Go ahead.”

“It’s Teri. We’re under attack. Some civilians slipped past us; they killed some of my squad, wounded more soldiers. I’m sending the wounded to you now.”

“Are the civilians heading towards us?”

“Don’t seem like it. Think they’re trying to escape the city.”

“Is Marcus still setting up the bombs?”

“Yeah, he said he should be done by the evening, provided no one comes along and fucks up everything. Look, stay in the park; keep rounding up prisoners and kill anyone who gives you any trouble. I’m on my way to kill these clowns; they might be trying to stop Marcus.”

“Fine. Radio me when it’s done.”

“Gotcha.”

Dolan put his radio back in his pocket and huffed as he set the hammer down. One of the wolves walked up to Dolan and sniffed.

“Sir? What is it?”

“Teri’s run into some resistance. Something in my gut tells me we might run into some too.”

The wolf looked at Dolan’s pudge and blinked. “Oh. So _that’s_ what your gut’s saying?”

“Just get everyone prepared! We can deal with the cops later; tell everyone to take their posts!”

As Dolan and his wolves started to move, the group heard footsteps in the distance, followed by someone clearing his throat.

“Someone order an ass-kicking?” asked Michum.

The hyena took out his beam sword and activated it, causing the blue energy to spout from the end of it. Tully took out his twin katanas and stood by Michum while Tracey held up her rifle and grinned. The trio all stood in front of Dolan and his crew, at which point the ram sighed with exasperation and picked up his battle hammer.

“I am the _last_ beast you wanna see right now.”

“Whatcha gonna do with that tiny li’l thing? You gonna smash a few watermel—”

Dolan interrupted Tully when he twisted his hammer’s handle. It clicked. The head of the hammer suddenly moved, and several spikes appeared, making the hammer look like it was studded. Tully’s eyes grew wide.

“Err…”

Dolan grunted as he pulled the hammer’s handle down. The weapon broke into two separate halves; the ram held the broken handle in one hand and carried the handle with the hammer head in the other. Then Dolan pushed a button on the handle and a red burst of laser energy emerged from the top of the “broken” handle. Dolan grinned as he held both weapons in each hand and snickered.

“I’ll…cover you guys. From up there,” said Tracey, as she backed away and ran up a set of fire escape stairs near a laundromat.

Michum and Tully began to back away as Dolan laughed and approached the two skaters.


	7. Traffic Jams, Traffic Jammed

The brown wolf was enjoying his army’s progression. With the exception of a few stragglers here and there, his pirates were taking over the city with minimal resistance. “They’ll never attack us,” they said. “They can’t reach us,” they all gloated. But here Lyle was, towering over all the citizens of the city as he observed all the carnage from a hotel balcony. The pirate looked around the hotel suite, observing all the other soldiers who were enjoying their downtime as well. It didn’t take long before the wolves started treating the creatures of Diamond City as their slaves. Some of them were being sodomized in groups on the other floors of the hotel, while the other citizens were being treated like butlers, forced to do whatever the pirates requested of them, no matter how asinine said request was. Lyle exhaled with much relief as he leaned back in his chair with his arms raised and used his paws as a pillow. He grinned toothily at the vixen and young pup standing before him, shaking.

“So, Sandra, your name is?” Lyle asked.

The vixen nodded and rubbed her arm. “Yes.”

“Got a young one with you, I see.”

“…Don’t touch him.”

Lyle huffed and rolled his eyes. “Why does everyone _always_ assume the first thing we’re gonna do is rape all the women and children?”

Sandra blinked. “Aren’t your wolves raping women and children right now?”

“Yeah, but it’s not the _first_ thing they did this morning. I mean damn—some of us gotta take a piss first!”

The young fox whimpered and hid behind his mother’s legs. Lyle looked at the young beast and grinned.

“Don’t fret, little one! My cock won’t be goin’ anywhere near your anus anytime soon!”

“Then what do you want with us?”

Lyle blinked and curled his toes. “Just wanted a footpaw massage. Been runnin’ around all damn day; my footpaws are quite tired and sweaty. Perhaps you could rectify that?”

Sandra looked at the wolf’s dirty footpaws before she glanced up at the wolf’s wicked smile. She didn’t feel like going anywhere near the pirate’s body, but Sandra knew if she didn’t comply, they’d take it out on her son. So the vixen grumbled and stomped towards the furry beast. She got on her knees and waited until the wolf lifted his footpaws in front of her face. She scrunched up her face after getting a whiff of his rancid soles before she reluctantly reached forward and started to squeeze his footpaws. Lyle closed his eyes and sighed with relief as he felt the vixen’s soft, furry paws groping his toes. The wolf opened his yellow eyes and exhaled again as he looked down at the fox.

“Oooh…that’s good. Now don’t be shy; get ‘tween the toes if you need to.”

Sandra shut her eyes and exhaled. “Why are you doing this?”

“I told you: my footpaws hurt.”

“No, _this_. Why us? Why this city? What…what’s the point in any of this?”

Lyle put his arms down and scratched his chin. “D’you ever hear of the term ‘haussmannization’?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything, m’dear! Look around ye! Look at all the ‘creative destruction’ around ya!”

“There’s nothing creative about haphazardly blowing up vehicles or tearing down buildings that are in your way.”

“Same difference. You see a mad wolf who gets turned on by death and decay. But I see the start of a new future, a new home—a new kingdom that I shall rule! But nothing can be created without destroying something first, yes? Hell, that table over there used to be part of a living, breathing tree, but us beasts chopped it down so we could make furniture.”

“And now you want to ‘tear down’ this city so you can have your own knick-knacks?”

“Precisely. Oh, sure, I could’ve stolen a nuclear bomb and just blew the hell outta this city. But where’s the fun in that? Sure, there’s a big boom and all that…then nothing. No screaming, no raping, no destruction that lasts for days—just a giant mushroom cloud. And how can I build a kingdom from the ashes? All the ashes are poisoned with radiation and other deadly toxins!”

Lyle shook his head. “No, this is _much_ more entertaining! I don’t just wanna order the cake; I wanna make it!”

“So I’m supposed to believe that a band of smelly wolves are gonna destroy an entire city just to build a new ‘kingdom,’ and that they’re gonna get away with all of it?”

“More or less. …You can stop now.”

Sandra took her paws away from Lyle’s footpaws and exhaled with disgust. But the vixen was surprised when she noticed that the wolf still had his footpaws up.

“Now wash ‘em.”

Sandra shut her eyes. “What?”

“You just said we’re a bunch of smelly wolves! And I just so happen to lead this ‘band of smelly wolves,’ so by default, I must stink the most out of every beast here! I’m sure my footpaws smell rather rank too, so I suggest you clean them.”

Sandra looked around the floor and shrugged. “Can’t. Don’t see any soap or water anywhere.”

“You have a tongue, don’t you?”

The vixen’s eyes grew wide. “ _What_?”

“Use your tongue! Unless you prefer if I have Junior over there clean my footpaws…”

As if on cue, two wolves walked towards the young fox and grabbed his arms. The pup started whimpering and protesting against the wolves; Sandra looked over her shoulder as the wolves started to shove her son forward.

“ALL RIGHT! All right…just don’t hurt my son.”

Lyle looked up at the two wolves and gestured for them to take Sandra’s son away. Then the captain looked down at the vixen and wiggled his filthy toes.

“You’d better get started. After this, you’re gonna have to clean out my tailhole. Probably best if you do that _before_ I take a shit.”

Sandra stared at the wolf with disgust while Lyle continued to laugh in her face. He leaned back in his chair again and shoved his smelly footpaws in the fox’s face again.

“Now start.”

______________

Shooting at wolves wearing jetpacks was difficult. Shooting at wolves wearing jetpacks while he was standing inside a speeding SUV was even more difficult. But A-Hole and the other passengers didn’t have a choice. So they aimed at all the canines following them and fired as much as possible. Deacon was sweating as he gripped the steering wheel with both hands and drove as safely and as quickly as possible. The other three passengers were using all their weapons at their disposal, shooting at Teri and the other furry beasts as much as they could. A-Hole ducked when another burst of energy came from Teri’s laser gun and nearly took off his head. He panted and crouched down inside the SUV as he released the magazine from his gun.

“Gimme another clip!”

A-Hole hid inside his shell when two wolves zoomed past the large vehicle on motorcycles. One of them sprayed the SUV full of holes, shattering most of the windows and tearing through the doors. After everyone ducked and covered their heads. Margot lifted a submachine gun and shot outside her window, cutting down two wolves on their motorbikes. Deacon briefly took his left hand off the steering wheel so he could shoot out the driver’s window; he shot one of the wolves in the head before popping one of the tires on another motorcycle up ahead. The canine lost control and shouted as he drove straight into a telephone pole. Rob acquired another magazine for A-Hole’s weapon and tossed it back at him. The tortoise picked up the cartridge, reloaded his gun, and stood up with half his body poking out the sunroof again. The reptile snarled as he resumed firing at Teri and her jetpack wolves again, still struggling to hit the furry beasts. All the jetpack canines were armed with standard gray submachine guns with seemingly unlimited ammunition; A-Hole found himself ducking within his shell multiple times just to avoid getting hit. He waited until most of the gunfire ceased before he pointed at Teri and fired a bullet.

And then immediately shouted when Deacon took a hard right and nearly tipped the SUV over. The tortoise gripped his gun tightly; it almost fell from his hands. He panted and disappeared into the SUV as more wolves on motorbikes and in jeeps started to follow them. Rob pointed his sawed-off shotgun out the window and made all his shots count. He blasted away one wolf following them on a motorbike before a jeep swerved beside theirs and bumped into the side of the vehicle. The badger blasted a round right through the driver’s window, leaving a gaping hole in the wolf’s skull. The jeep screeched as it drifted off the road and drove into a burning restaurant. Rob removed the rounds from the gun and replaced fresh shells inside. The gun clicked as Rob reloaded, and the panting beast aimed at more foes coming from the right.

“LEFT SIDE!”

Deacon swore as he turned on another road, nearly running over a few fleeing pedestrians in the process. The boar ducked as another hailstorm of bullets were sprayed his way, with seemingly no end in sight. The beast swerved to his left and bumped the SUV into the motorbike on his left. The wolf yelled moments before his bike spilled out of control. Deacon lifted his head and gestured for Margot to hand him a gun, but the second she lifted one, the kangaroo shouted as the windshield exploded. She dropped the gun; A-Hole shouted when one of the tires popped and the vehicle started to swerve out of control. The reptile held onto the SUV shortly before Teri fired two more lasers at the SUV, popping another tire. Deacon swore as they started to drive down a steep road; the boar couldn’t keep the large SUV under control anymore and started to swear.

“Brakes! BRAKES!” screamed Margot.

“I’m try—”

Deacon swore when an explosion tore through the side of the street. Someone with a rocket launcher tried to take out the group, shooting debris through the broken windshield. Teri fired at the SUV again just as A-Hole ducked and the large vehicle began to drift. Deacon slammed on the brakes, causing the two remaining tires to squeal and create smoke. The SUV reached the bottom of the hill, and the boar shouted when he drove the vehicle straight into a fire hydrant. Everyone in the car grunted or banged their head as the SUV came to a halt. A-Hole stuck his head out of his shell while Margot and Deacon groaned and started to lift their heads. The kangaroo looked outside the window and gasped when two wolves advanced on her. She wearily lifted a handgun and fired out the window, killing one wolf and wounding the other. The marsupial panted and reached for the door handle.

“Out…everyone get out!”

Margot opened up the door and nearly fell on the ground on her way out. Rob burst from the SUV blasting, taking out more wolves with the sawed-off shotgun. Deacon emerged from the vehicle holding his torso, swearing and wincing after getting wounded from all the gunfire. A-Hole crouched down and burst from the SUV as well, and the four creatures were thrown into the crossfire. Deacon winced as he limped across the street alongside Rob and Margot, both of whom were covering him. Teri fired a few more bursts from her laser and nearly hit Rob in the shoulder; the badger tripped over a trash can and dropped his shotgun. Another wolf found the survivors and started to speed towards them on his motorbike; Rob quickly stood up and hurled the trash can lid at the canine’s face. The wolf shouted and spilled out of control just before Rob ducked twice and rolled backwards. He retrieved his shotgun again and blasted twice before he panted and took out the shells.

“GO! GO—GET DOWN THE ALLEYS!”

The four creatures sprinted down the alley, with Rob blocking the path by tipping over trash cans so the wolves on vehicles couldn’t follow them. Deacon groaned as he leaned against a brick wall and held his midriff, which was bleeding even further.

“We can’t stop now—they’re right on our asses!” A-Hole snarled.

“Just…just a few—”

“Either move your fat ass or we’re leaving you behind!”

Margot snarled. “Fuck you. If we need to stop—”

“Shut up! We’re in the middle of a fuckin’ war zone! I’m not gonna stand by—”

Margot, Rob and Deacon all shouted and turned away when warm fluids and strange clumps of flesh splattered against their faces. Rob wiped his face off and looked down, only to frown when he noticed that A-Hole was on the ground—without his head. The badger could see part of his smoking neck protruding from his shell, and what was left of his head was either on the ground, the walls, or sprayed against the trio’s faces.

“Shit…”

Rob looked up and saw Teri looking down at the trio as she held her laser gun. “WE HAVE TO MOVE!”

Margot started to run down the alley, aiming for the jetpack wolves she spotted along the way. Rob ran behind Deacon, shoving the fat boar so much he may as well had been carrying him down the alley instead. By the time the trio reached the end, they were surprised when they saw a few more vehicles and a very large truck roaring down the road. The trio aimed at the large cars for a moment before the truck and jeeps screeched to a halt.

“LET’S GO! EVERYBODY OUT! GO, GO, MOVE!”

Rob was surprised when he noticed that all the creatures stepping out of the truck and jeeps were fully-clothed beasts all clad in light blue and gray camouflage gear. Rob noticed the logo printed on all of their sleeves or chests and nearly sighed with relief.

“Is that the National Guard?” Deacon asked.

All the camouflaged personnel responded by shooting at the wolves following the trio in the alleyway. Some of them aimed into the air and fired as well, shooting at Teri and the jetpack wolves accompanying her. Deacon panted as he continued to hold his sides, wondering if he’d inevitably bleed to death soon. One of the soldiers, a koala bear whose clothes seemed like they were too big for her, grabbed Rob’s shoulder and pointed to one of the jeeps.

“Come on! We’re rounding up all the stragglers and escorting them out of the city!”

The trio didn’t need to wait up any longer. They followed the koala bear without hesitating for even a second. The koala hopped into the driver’s seat of a jeep while Rob climbed in the passenger’s seat. Deacon and Margot hopped in the back, at which point the koala stomped on the gas pedal, leaving the other soldiers to deal with Teri’s troops. As the survivors began to speed away, Teri crouched down on a roof and took cover. The wolf picked up her radio again, panting as she messaged Lyle.

“Lyle! The National Guard’s here; we’re taking heavy fire!”

Teri shouted when a bullet nicked her left ear, taking off the tip of it. She swore and grasped the bleeding ear before the radio crackled with static. Teri panted and spoke into the radio again after hearing Lyle’s reply.

“Fine! Send it now; I could use it!”

___________________

As the koala sped down the road, the four creatures heard an ear-splitting cry from behind, like some feral creature roaring as it tried to scare its prey. Margot and Deacon looked behind at the sky after hearing another roar. And then they saw the beast’s wings.

“Christ…how fast can this thing go?”

“Fast enough,” the koala responded.

“THEN STEP ON IT!” Deacon cried.

The koala accelerated, just as the metallic dragon began to chase after them in the sky.


	8. Soap Opera

While Rob and the others were escaping, and as Michum and his crew dealt with Dolan and his thugs, Carson was leading Kelly and Kinzly towards the bridge. The crocodile was walking ahead of the two beasts, holding both of his assault rifles in each hand as if he was about to shoot at the sky. The beast snickered as he sniffed and looked behind at the two stragglers.

“Pick it up, y’all! These pirates won’t be here forever, y’know!”

“Shouldn’t we be quiet, in case we come across the wolves and they try to ambush us?”

“Tch! Bein’ quiet’s fer sissies, Kinz! Kelly here can explain that to you _very_ well!”

The lizard rubbed her face. “Now is _not_ the time to start going on about our sex life.”

“Why not? I’m sure Kinz here’s got blue balls; he ain’t got some since back in high school!”

“That’s not true—”

“You play your cards right, and we might just get into a threesome!”

Carson laughed wildly as he stomped forward wagging his tail. Kinzly and Kelly stopped walking altogether and glared at each other.

“I’m getting tired of your boyfriend,” the skunk growled.

“ _Ex_ -boyfriend,” Kelly corrected.

Kinzly raised an eyebrow. “When did that happen?”

“It hasn’t yet. But after all this mess gets sorted out, we’re done. I was gonna break up with him the second we left the restaurant.”

Kinzly let out a wry laugh. “Damn. Leave it to a hostile invasion to delay a breakup.”

“I know, right? It’s just until this day’s over, then we’re through.”

Kinzly shrugged. “If you say so.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean y’all have had issues before. You always stayed together despite everything that happened.”

“Because I thought I wouldn’t find anyone else, or anyone better. But clearly there’s gotta be another person out there who isn’t a loud-mouthed narcissist who can’t give me any space.”

“Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of people like that in this city. Just make sure you fall in love with someone who actually uses mouthwash, for _our_ sake.”

Kelly chuckled. “We’ll see.”

“HEY! ASSHOLES AT SIX O’CLOCK!” Carson warned.

Kelly and Kinzly turned around. The skunk took out his bow and notched it with an arrow while the lizard pointed two pistols behind her. The creatures blinked and looked around the street, but didn’t see anything.

“Where? I don’t see any wolves,” Kelly stated.

“Right HERE!”

Kelly and Kinzly yelped when Carson clutched their bottoms tightly. The crocodile backed away just as the two beasts turned around and looked at the chortling reptile. Kelly closed her eyes and sighed deeply while Kinzly shook his head and snarled. Carson tried to talk in-between his laughs and grinned.

“GOTCHA! S-see, I said asshole and six o’clock! And-and six o’clock means behind ya! So it’s like I was saying, ‘Hey, your ass is behind ya’ quite literally!”

“Yes, we get the joke, dumbass,” Kinz growled.

Carson snickered. “But seriously, I found some assholes over there. Seems like they’re heading towards the bridge.”

Kinz and Kelly rushed beside the crocodile as he pointed towards the harbor and saw a group of wolves and other creatures driving towards the underside of the bridge. Kelly rubbed her chin as she observed where the vehicles were going.

“Seems like Mich’s gut was right. I bet they’re trying to blow up the bridge, demolish our one ticket outta the city,” she concluded.

“I don’t suppose skunky here knows how to fly a chopper or plane?”

Kinzly blinked. “No, sorry. Left my pilot license at home.”

Carson lowered his eyelids. “You don’t have to be an ass about it.”

“I’m serious. All the choppers in this city are probably gonna be guarded by the military. You really think they’ll let me fly one when I don’t even have my license on me?”

“Tch! People use guns without licenses!”

“And look at what happens!”

Kelly shushed both of them. “Be quiet! License or not, we gotta follow ‘em! If they plan on destroying the bridge, don’t you think it’s best we stop ‘em?”

Carson nodded. “Good point. No need to stay too close to ‘em though; we should keep our distance, travel on foot.”

___________________

Marcus and his team exited their vehicles and began to set up their defenses and take positions. The giant tortoise sniffed as he dug into his shell and took out his handgun and radio.

“Scubbs, go take your team and clear the docks; I’m sure there’s some sailors or marine patrol around here. Ivers, place your wolves on the roof and around the warehouse. I’ll lead the rest of the soldiers to the pylons and we’ll set up the bombs.”

Ivers and Scubbs nodded. “Aye, sah!”

Marcus got on his radio and spoke to Lyle as he began to walk. “Yeah, we’re here; I’m about to start. No, we haven’t run into trouble yet; why? …Well, that’s Dolan and Teri’s fault; they’re clearly not as competent as I am. …No, Lyle; don’t send that dragon out yet! We might need him again for—fine. Whatever. You wanna waste that valuable weapon picking off some stragglers on the street, fine. Just don’t whine and bitch later when that dragon is shot out the sky and we aren’t able to use it when we need it.”

Marcus lowered his radio and shook his head. “Move out!”

A few yards away, Carson, Kelly and Kinzly finally arrived at the docks. They traversed around the piles of dead bodies and held their breath so the odor of their soiled corpses didn’t flow into their lungs. The giant crocodile peeked around the corner of a wrecked building and spotted some wolves kicking a few members of the marine patrol into the sea. Carson growled and pointed one of his rifles at the wolves.

“No. Are you crazy? We’ve no idea how many canines are out here!” Kelly said in a hushed voice.

“I don’t care. I’m sick of these fuckers ruining our city and killing everyone!”

“So are we! But that doesn’t mean we have to be reckless!” Kinz pleaded.

“Shut yer mouth, skunky! If anything you should be agreeing with me! Your best friend died ‘cos of these assholes! For all we know, the skate park we spend every day hanging out at is probably occupied with these wolves! All our homes are destroyed; that restaurant we were just eating at—it’s all gone because of these fucking assholes! And you’re say—”

Kelly clamped Carson’s mouth shut and dragged him towards the rear of the building. The reptile mumbled a few times with his maw closed before Kelly finally let go and sighed.

“I know you’re upset. We’re upset too, honey. But running around with a half-assed plan isn’t going to do us any favors. We both know that.”

Carson breathed heavily before he whimpered and lowered his rifle. “All our stuff was in my apartment, Kell. All the…the photos, the trophies you won in gymnastics—the tie-dye T-shirts we made!”

Kinzly blinked. “Tie-dye?”

Kelly smiled and chuckled. “I thought you threw those out. We, uh…we were at some party, or some hippie meeting—I dunno. But they were teaching us all how to make tie-dye T-shirts. Cars, naturally, just threw as much dye as he could onto his shirt. It ended up turning brown and black. I tried to make a green and blue one for Carson, but I guess I put in too much red, because it ended up turning pink. Heh…surprised you still have it.”

Carson smiled and wagged his tail. “Course I still have it, Kell-Bell. We made ‘em together; it’s our symbol of connectivity and peace, all that good stuff. And it’s a reminder that we can’t tie-dye for shit.”

Kelly snickered. “No. No, we cannot.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt this irrelevant moment of reminiscing, but there are dozens of homicidal wolves around us. We should, y’know, do something about that?”

Kelly blinked and looked at the skunk. “Oh…yes. Probably best if we sneak around—”

“Not yet. Something tells me they’ll have snipers. I’ll head up and cover you guys from the roofs. Then you two can sneak around towards the warehouse. There’s bound to be something important over there.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Dude. It’s a warehouse. Bad guys _always_ do bad things in warehouses.”

Carson shrugged. “He’s got a point, Kell.”

“Okay. Cover us from up there; we’ll scope out the ground.”

The skunk nodded and proceeded to climb up a ladder. As he moved, Kelly took out her handguns and twisted the silencers to the ends of them. Carson giggled mischievously as he lifted both rifles again, causing Kelly to frown. She gestured for the crocodile to lower his weapons so she could fit the silencers on them. After she did, the lizard pointed out into the open and the two creatures took a peek. Carson and Kelly observed two wolves standing behind the gate arm checking to make sure no one tried to attack the entrance. Kelly looked at Carson and pointed in the other direction, and the couple traveled in-between two narrow buildings as slowly as possible. Someone opened the door of the building to Kelly’s right, causing her to gasp. The second the wolf stepped outside, Kelly pointed her handgun at the beast and shot him twice in the gut and once in the jaw. She quickly shoved his body back inside the building before exhaling and continuing forward.

Kelly and Carson arrived to the other side of the building and crouched down. The lizard removed her radio from her trousers and instructed Kinzly to make a distraction for them. After she radioed the skunk, Kelly and Carson looked out at the gate arm and both wolves went down in the span of two seconds. Some of the other wolves standing out in the center of the harbor saw the bodies fall and rushed over to investigate. A path in front of Kelly and Carson was open; the reptiles ran forward and crossed the open area of the harbor. Kinzly observed the duo from above and sniped another wolf who had taken position on one of the rooftops. Meanwhile, the couple reached a small storage unit beside the warehouse and crouched down again. Kelly switched to her knives instead and looked to her left while Carson took the right. Kelly creeped along the side of the storage unit and spotted a couple of wolves armed with guns walking her way. She swiftly tossed a knife at both wolves, only hitting one in the face. The other one grunted as the safe end of the knife bounced off his muzzle.

Before the wolf could comprehend what was happening, Kelly sprinted towards him, stabbed him twice, then covered his mouth so no one would hear his screams. As she took out the wolves with guns, Carson engaged some wolves carrying swords. He effortlessly killed three of them with his rifle, but the fourth one noticed what Carson was doing and charged forward. Carson screamed and held his rifle up in defense; the wolf swung his sword down and sliced it in half. The crocodile whimpered as the canine prepared to strike again. He lifted his sword high and gave Carson no time to defend. So the reptile instinctively opened his mouth wide and exhaled as harshly as he could in the canine’s face. The wolf’s eyes grew wide and started to water as the rotten smell of Carson’s breath filled his lungs. He covered his nose with one paw and groaned as he tried to fan the stench away, giving Carson enough time to use his other rifle strapped to his back. The crocodile panted a few times after gunning down the fourth wolf and exhaled as he looked behind to find Kelly. Carson grinned.

“And you said I need a toothbrush!” Carson said in a mocking tone.

The lizard blinked. “I still stand by that statement.”

Carson shook his head. “No can do, babe! This breath saved my life! Hmph, minty-fresh breath my ass—bad breath for the win! Imagine what I could do with this new power of mine!”

“Repulse your friends and family?”

“ _And_ rapists and muggers! No need to fear, Kell-Bell! My smelly mouth and I will keep you safe!”

Kelly slapped the palm of her hand against her face. “Whatever. Just go unleash your ‘new power’ over there, away from me.”

Carson nodded. “As you wish!”

The two creatures were about to resume their journey of taking out more pirates when they heard a loud roar in the distance. Carson and Kelly looked up at the sky while Kinzly got on the radio.

“Y’all hear that?”

“Yeah, sounds like that dragon again,” said Kelly.

“I think the time for stealth is over. The time for action and ass-kicking is now!”

Kelly looked at the crocodile as he stomped out into the open. “No, Cars—WAIT!”

“HEY ASSHOLES! Which one of you dibshits wants to get their cocks shoved down their throats first?!”

Carson grinned as he stood in the middle of the harbor and pointed his G36 rifle at nearly a dozen wolves. All of them looked at the crocodile and pointed their weapons at him. The reptile frowned when he noticed that one of the wolves was armed with a Gatling gun capable of shredding his scaly body to pieces. Carson, unsurprisingly, frowned and sprinted back for cover when they started to fire.

“OH, SHIT!” he yelled.

The panting beast stood beside Kelly and exhaled, shortly before he laughed meekly and scratched the back of his head.

“So maaaaaaybe I misjudged their firepower,” he said timidly.

Kelly huffed and grabbed her radio again. “Li’l help here, Kinz?!”

The skunk didn’t respond verbally. Instead, he pointed his rifle at the crowd of wolves and started to fire. He took out the canine wielding the Gatling gun first, then immediately switched targets and killed two wolves carrying RPGs. With the biggest threats out of the way, Kelly and Carson were free to roam around the harbor shooting the canines as they moved to and fro looking for cover. Kelly still tried to maintain her cover, using guerilla tactics to take out the canines. She hid behind a stack of crates before shooting through the barrier and hitting some wolves in the legs. Then she emerged from her cover and shot the wolves twice in the back. The lizard sprinted towards a barrel filled with oil and tipped it over, spilling the contents all over the ground. Then she shot at the slippery fluids twice, causing a few sparks to ignite. As the fire started, Carson continued to run towards the wolves without any form of plan, simply blasting at the lot of them with his rifle. Four went down while another two were wounded. The crocodile heard two clicks and swore as he ran for cover.

As the beast reloaded, Kinzly kept sniping the pirates and soldiers from the roof. The skunk managed to take out two of the pirates on the ground, moments before the other snipers on the roof noticed someone was targeting them. The skunk yelped when a bullet grazed his back and tore through his clothing. Kinzly immediately stood up and changed position. He sprinted along the roof, panting and wincing as more bullets flew his way from the other snipers’ fire. The skunk grunted as he leaped onto the roof of an adjacent building and rolled along the surface. He rolled right towards one of the canine snipers and blasted him in the chest twice with his rifle. Then he crawled towards the edge of the building and panted as he took a new position. Back down on the ground, Kelly was still relying on her guerilla tactics to take down the wolves and other vicious animals. After rolling on the ground and avoiding a hailstorm of bullets, the lizard sprinted down onto the docks and spotted a few wolves hopping into large dinghies, with a tortoise leading the group. As Marcus began to sail away, he got out his radio and called Lyle.

“LYLE! Get the fuck down here; we’re under attack! Yeah, yeah—I’m heading over to place the bombs now!”

Kelly turned around and looked at the docks. The gunfire was starting to cease, and Kinzly and Carson seemed to have the upper hand. They’ll be fine, she deduced. So the lizard climbed down a ladder and sprinted towards one of the other dinghies. She jumped inside the tiny boat and quickly took out her radio.

“I think I found the guys who got the bomb! Going after ‘em; you secure the harbor!”

“Roget that!” shouted Carson.

“Will do,” Kinzly responded.

Kelly started up the motor and began to chase after Marcus and his goons, just as the giant dragon arrived above the port.


	9. Gonna Touch YOU Down

Michum panted and yelped as he avoided the white ram’s heavy hammer. Dolan snarled and snorted as he swung his hammer and sword around like a bat, hoping he’d crack his hammer against the hyena’s skull. As the spotted creature fought the bloated beast, Tully covered his friend by killing all the wolves who were trying to sneak up on him. He sliced and diced his way through the furry beasts, cutting various wolves in half or severing many limbs. The giant elephant roared as he hopped into the air and swung his sword down, cutting through a pirate’s cranium. He turned around and sliced another wolf’s gun in half before whipping out a knife and charging forward, stabbing the wolf in the throat. As the wolf gurgled on his blood, Tully removed his weapon, slid it back into his pocket, and took out a grenade. He pulled the pin with his teeth and tossed the explosive backwards, where half a dozen wolves were blown apart.

“Hold still, ‘yena! I wanna hear your skull crack as I turn your brains into mush!”

Michum grunted as he hopped backwards twice and smirked at the ram. “Yeeeeeaaaaaaah, not gonna happen, buddy!”

The hyena rolled forward and stood back up, spinning around the ram and slicing him across his midriff. Dolan yowled after his kidney was ruptured, but refused to give up so easily. He hurled his body around, swinging his sword and giant hammer at the hyena’s face. Michum ducked and slid aside as the giant beast continued to clumsily swing his weapons at him. Michum’s sword hummed and crackled as the two creatures exchanged blows; the hyena grunted and walked backwards as they smacked their weapons together. Michum looked beyond his shoulder and shouted when another wolf tried to sneak up on him. He spun around and decapitated the pirate, then grunted when the giant hammer made contact with his chest. Michum shouted as he was hurled backwards, his ribs all feeling like they had cracked. Michum coughed twice and swore as he tried to stand up, stunned by the ram’s vicious blow. The ram’s big belly jiggled as he stomped towards Michum and roared, lifting both weapons high. Michum gasped and rolled out of the beast’s way, just in time for Dolan to slam both weapons on the ground. The hyena coughed as he stood up, feeling tiny punctures on his chest from the spikes on the hammer.

Michum was about to strike the ram again when Dolan yowled and a mist of blood gushed from his back. The ram jerked his head towards the roof and spotted Tracey with her scoped rifle. The giant beast snarled and stomped towards the building she was on, ready to smash her skull in. But the okapi was prepared; she immediately stood up and moved to a different spot on the roof. Michum chased after the giant ram and stabbed him through the back, just below the heart. Dolan snarled as Michum removed his sword and hurled his own beam sword around. The hyena panted as he stared at the big beast, who was still seemingly unfazed despite having a sword go right through his back. Dolan threw his hammer forward, hoping to knock the spotted creature’s head right off. After Michum ducked, the ram roared and punched the hyena right in the face, knocking him to the ground. Michum’s beam sword flew into the grass; the hyena felt a tooth loosening in his mouth just as Dolan walked towards him and pressed a dirty foot down on his throat. The hyena gurgled and reached up to try and move the ram’s leg, to no avail.

Dolan heard Tully stomping towards him from behind. Not even bothering to turn around, the giant beast bent over and grunted. Within only a few seconds, a fine brown mist of gas burst from the ram’s black shorts and started to spread around the pachyderm’s personal space. Tully looked at the rancid gas coming from Dolan’s backside and shouted. He covered his mouth and trunk the best he could, but it didn’t help. Tully started to cough and gag as the foul-smelling fumes crept into his mouth and lungs.

“Aww, that’s _sick_ , man!”

Dolan snickered as Tully dropped his sword and fell to the ground coughing and hacking. The ram pressed down harder on the hyena’s throat, causing Michum to gurgle and gasp for air. But before Dolan could deliver the killing blow, Tracey came to the rescue again, shooting him twice in the back. The beast shouted as he stumbled forward and got off Michum, giving the spotted creature time to breathe. But the stench of Dolan’s gas still lingered; Michum found himself choking even after Dolan took his foot off him. But the hyena fought through all the fetid gas as he wandered around the field looking for his beam sword. A few more shots rang out; more canines fell. The okapi tried to aim for Dolan again, but the giant beast turned around and passed more gas. Only this time around, the brown gas acted as a giant brown haze that clouded the okapi’s vision. Tracey swore as the brown haze started to spread around the field, blocking out Michum, Tully and Dolan entirely. Tully lied on the ground and started to retch as his eyes began to burn and the stench nearly made him vomit. Michum fought through the stench as he vigorously looked around the haze for his beam sword. He ran his paws through the grass and rolled out of the way when a wolf tried to take off his head. Frustrated, Michum took out his submachine gun and drilled the wolf full of holes. He was tempted to shoot through the haze, but Tully was still in the fog too. Michum took a step backwards and yelped as he stepped on something that rolled around on the ground. The hyena panted, bent down, and finally found his sword. He activated the beam again and grinned.

Then he turned around and shouted as Dolan snuck up on him. The white ram ran him through with his beam sword, sticking the spotted beast with the red beam of energy. Michum gasped as the laser energy tore right through his flesh and bone, burning the bits of furs around his torso. Dolan grinned and laughed in Michum’s face while the hyena used his last ounce of energy to lash out at the ram. He drove his sword into Dolan’s stomach as well, causing the ram to groan vociferously. Michum gripped the beam sword with two paws and started to drag it to the left horizontally. Dolan tried to do the same, but all his previous wounds had caught up to him. He could feel his life slipping away, his body’s energy draining fast. Dolan gritted his teeth and coughed up blood as Michum slowly began to cut the ram in half. Fat, blood, and feces all spilled out of the beast’s gaping wound. Michum grimaced after he heard a wet and vile sputtering noise; the stench that crept into his nose only confirmed that Dolan’s bowels had just loosened. Michum reached down and deactivated Dolan’s beam sword. Then he shouted with all his might as he jerked his sword left with full force. 

As the brown haze cleared, Tully started to catch his breath, and Tracey could clearly see what had happened. All the wolves were dead, Michum and Tully were still alive, and Dolan was still standing in front of Michum. The hyena looked at the ram for a moment before he grabbed Dolan’s face and shoved him forward. The top half of Dolan fell to the ground; the bottom half stayed standing, with fat, blood, stomach acid and excrement still oozing from his body. Michum backed away and grimaced when he saw the intestinal lining still resting above Dolan’s waist. Eventually, the lower half of the body collapsed too with a meaty squelch, and some of the organs spilled out, making Michum retch.

“Okay, that’s grody,” the hyena said in-between gags.

Once the gas was all clear, Tully waved his hands in front of his giant trunk and rushed over to Michum, who was struggling to stand.

“Jesus, man, he fuckin’ stabbed you!”

The hyena chuckled. “Yeah, feels…feels cool, y’know! Like…like getting stabbed through the gut with a big-ass hot knife. It’s awesome buddy,” Michum muttered.

“We gotta find a-a health kit or something—”

“No, no, relax…I think the laser already cauterized the wound. Just, argh, find some gauze or something.”

As Tully nodded, Tracey came running from the roof panting. “Holy crap! Are you okay?!”

Michum huffed. “Yeah, it’s like getting stabbed with—no. You guys know if there’s a medkit nearby?”

“There’s bound to be one in one of these shops. I’ll see if I can find you one; stay here and make sure he’s safe, Tull!”

The elephant nodded just as Tracey sprinted towards one of the buildings. As Michum groaned and leaned against a tree, Tully heard static coming from the ram’s bifurcated body and crouched down beside his bloody shorts. The elephant removed the radio from the beast’s trousers and picked it up slowly.

“Dolan? Is the park secure yet?”

The elephant looked at the radio and smirked to himself. “Dolan? Err, big fat ram, likes to fart a lot?”

The voice on the other end of the radio paused. “What happened to Dolan?”

“Him? Oh yeah, uh, I’m an architect! And I decided that this road over here needed to be remodeled, so I asked Dolan to come over and help us! Hehehe, we painted the street with his colon. Yeah, just _painted_ it.”

“…Do you know who I am, _boy_?”

“I’m not some _boy_ ; I’m a pachyderm, thanks.”

Michum walked away from the tree and limped towards Tully. “Get off that; whoever’s on the other end might be able to track us!”

Tully glanced at the hyena and smirked. “Yeah, seems like Dolan wanted to paint the road brown too; there’s a fair bit of shit ‘round here. …Well, a lot actually. _Damn_.”

Tully backed away from Dolan’s body so he didn’t step in the fecal matter by accident. Meanwhile, Tracey returned with the medical kit and stopped in front of Michum. The two creatures opened up the box; Michum took off his green shirt, which made it easier for the okapi to wrap some of the gauze around the wound. Tully kept exacerbating the beast on the other end of the radio, much to Michum’s annoyance.

“Gimme that; stop goading the damn pirate!”

Michum snatched the radio from the elephant’s hands and spoke into the device in a calmer voice. “I’m gonna assume this is the asshole who’s tearing this city apart.”

“No, this is Captain Lyle Krinkor, the _new_ leader of this city! And the ram you just killed was one of my lieutenants.”

“And now I’m assuming you want payback to avenge his murder, blah, blah, blah.”

“No. But from what it sounds like, you and that other beast seem to enjoy a challenge!”

Michum shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. You plan on a one-on-one, Captain?”

“Not at all! I got a better idea! While I go around this city raping and pillaging more innocents, you and your little posse can head over to the Marxt Hotel! There’s a bomb inside the building, and it just so happens to be filled with dozens of men, women, children, etc. There’s no possible way for you to save them all and deactivate the bomb in time, but you’re more than welcome to try.”

Michum scoffed. “You’re too much of a coward to face me head-on?”

“No. I want to see the look on your face after you’re failed to save all those crying cubs and pups. I wanna look you in the eye and tell you that it’s all your fault, that you _almost_ succeeded, but failed. I wanna see what you look like after I’ve broken you. _Then_ I’ll kill you.”

Michum smirked. “Sorry to say buddy, but you’re going to be _thoroughly_ disappointed after we save the day and get branded as that one band of unlikely heroes who ended up saving the day from creatures like you. I’m sure you will be—”

Michum heard a loud click, and the radio stopped making noise. “He hung up on me.”

Tracey raised an eyebrow. “You can’t hang up on someone using a radio.”

“Well, it’s not—” Michum huffed. “It doesn’t matter. We gotta head to the Marxt Hotel!”

“What for?” Tully asked.

“Apparently this Captain Lyle’s got a shit-ton of hostages there all tied-up. And there’s a bomb inside. So it’s our job to rescue ‘em!”

“Orrrrrrrrr…this is all just a trap. Maybe there are no hostages and the pirate’s just trying to see if we’re stupid enough to listen to him.”

“What else can we do, Trace? It’s not like we have some GPS software pirate-locating-thingy with us. Besides, maybe another ‘lieutenant’ like Dolan is guarding them; if we kill him or her, this captain will start losing control, start realizing that he can’t stop a bunch of skaters like us. And _then_ his army will look at him as weak, turn on him—you know how this shit goes.”

Tracey sighed. “I guess so. Maybe it’s a good thing he told us where to go. After all, the bear who sees the trap cannot get caught.”

“That doesn’t really help when I’m an elephant, now does it?” Tully asked.

Michum and Tracey stared at the elephant for a brief moment. And then Michum smacked him in the back of his head.


	10. Giving Michael Bay Erections

Rob and the others were lucky that the koala bear was a very good driver. With Teri’s wolves and the dragon chasing after them, the group found it hard to escape from either of them. The badger fired off two more shots from his sawed-off shotgun before realizing he was out of ammunition. The koala bear, thinking instinctively, reached down and tossed a pump-action shotgun at the badger. As the dragon cried out once again, Margot used some of the pistols she acquired to try and hit the dragon, looking for any weak point. The kangaroo was just starting to reload her weapons when a jeep swerved near their vehicle and a wolf snarled as he threw himself out the vehicle. Margot shouted as the wolf wrapped his arms around her head and tried to pry her out of the moving jeep. The marsupial grunted and swore as she looked up at the snarling wolf salivating and blowing his hot breath on her face. Margot jammed her thumbs into the creature’s eyes until he screamed and released her. Then she clutched onto his head and pushed him out of the vehicle. She waited until his legs were out of the jeep, and then she let go of his head, sending the wolf tumbling around on the street.

Fed up with chasing after the civilians, Teri fired the main boost on her jetpack and zoomed forward until she was hovering directly above the jeep. Then she unleashed a full barrage of laser fire onto the vehicle, snarling and shouting, hoping she’d slay all the people on board before they got away. One of the tires popped; the koala bear swore as she swerved the jeep to the left and drove straight through a café. Everyone ducked as glass and debris flew across their faces and the jeep. Deacon panted as he fired upwards at the jetpack wolf, hoping that she’d finally go down. Teri shouted again after two more bullets found their way into her stomach and right leg. She knew this wasn’t working; the dragon wasn’t even trying to aid her anymore. Teri looked up and noticed that the dragon was flying around aimlessly, swooping down to breathe fire into different sections of the city. At one point, she even caught the dragon unleashing more fecal matter into multiple city blocks. She spotted the strange-looking sphere in the mounds of feces and was well-aware of what the reptile was doing. Teri picked up her radio and messaged the captain again.

“Damn it, Lyle! What the hell are you doing; I need help over here!”

“And this dragon needs to devour a lot more innocent creatures and burn down more city blocks. That’s much more important than your well-being.”

“I’m running out of soldiers! Sooner or later—”

“—you’ll die? Hehe, I’m sure you’ll make it through. Let me know when you’ve killed those escapees, will you?”

“Ly—FUCK!!”

Teri already knew this wouldn’t go the way she planned. The dragon was flying everywhere _except_ on the street she was hovering above, which meant she had no help. Teri dropped her radio and realized she had to take care of Rob and his friends on her own. The wolf descended as fast as possible, still pointing her laser gun directly at the driver. The koala turned the jeep again and headed down a narrow alley, knocking over several trash cans and bumping into a dumpster in the process. By the time they reached the end of the alley, she turned to her left, causing Teri to growl as she jerked herself over to keep up the pursuit. Teri, frustrated over chasing the four beasts, zoomed directly over the jeep and unhooked her jetpack from her back. As she fell, she pointed the laser gun at the jeep and shot five times, taking off part of Rob’s ear and hitting the ursine in the shoulder. Then she landed on the jeep hard and stood up. But before Teri could fire again, Rob aimed his shotgun at her chest and blasted her away. The wolf screamed as she was thrown off the jeep, and then silenced forever when one of the other jeeps chasing after Rob’s crew ran Teri’s body over. The jeep lost control and flipped several times, sending the occupants flying.

“I…I think we’re clear,” Rob shouted, before he swore and grabbed his right ear.

“Everyone all right?” Margot asked.

Deacon huffed. “Fine.”

“Took a round in the shoulder. …Shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” said the driver.

“Good. So what’s the plan now?” Rob asked.

“I’m taking you across the bridge. We’ve been told to escort anyone we can out the city. At this point, we’re not even sure if this city can be saved. We’ve already lost about a third of it; most of the police forces are gone, a majority of the National Guard’s dead. It’s just me and a few other squadrons now, and some members of the Marines and Air Force coming along to take beasts out the city via helicopter or plane,” said the koala.

“Shouldn’t we be heading for one of those choppers instead?”

“No. That dragon’s been swatting some of them outta the sky. We’re better off taking the bridge; at least we won’t be so much of a sitting duck there. It’s closer anyway.”

“Fine. Bridge it is then.”

___________________

The koala bear didn’t reach the bridge just yet. Before the four creatures arrived, steam burst out of the engine, followed by acrid black smoke. The ursine huffed and slammed her paw on the wheel before opening the driver’s door.

“Damn. That laser must’ve torn a hole through the engine and fuel line. Guess we gotta walk.”

The soldier hopped out of the jeep with her weapons while Rob and the others stayed where they were for the moment. She turned around and looked at the trio before whistling.

“You guys coming or what?”

“Yeah…we’ll be right there,” Rob muttered.

The koala waited until the three beasts eventually got out of their jeep. Once they did, they slowly started walking beside the ursine, and the four creatures began to head towards the bridge out of town.

“Keep on alert. Could still be some stragglers waiting to ambush us,” the soldier said.

Deacon grumbled. “Can we _please_ have one moment of silence for fuck’s sake?”

“We don’t get that luxury anymore. These pirates are here now; we either fight or we die.”

“Or we run away with our tail tucked ‘tween our legs, right?” Rob snidely added.

The koala bear looked at the badger and scowled. Rob turned away and sighed. “I’m sorry…I’m just lookin’ in a mirror, that’s all.”

“What does that mean?”

Rob looked at the soldier’s nametag and blinked. “You’re young, Corporal Skellish. You don’t know yet—not for another year or two. Not until you’re my age. I thought it’d be fun too…thought being a hero would be great, thought running away meant I was a coward. But there’s no shame in it…maybe I would’ve been better off if I had run.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You wanna know what I got for being a ‘hero’? Medals. Some big-wigs saying ‘congratulations,’ constantly shaking my paw, patting my back. I was ‘rewarded’ with PTSD. I…I got into arguments with my boyfriend a lot. Almost choked him to death when I was having a nightmare one night. We tried to work it all out…even jokingly talked about getting married at some point. Today was the day where I finally came home and finally got past all this fuckin’ bullshit. So what happens? We get attacked by pirates, my boyfriend bleeds out in my arms, and now I’m in the same hell-hole I was drowning in just a few weeks ago. The only difference is that the ‘hell-hole’ is my hometown, not some foreign country across the ocean.”

The koala paused and looked down. “I’m sorry about that. Really, I…I’ve seen other soldiers—friends of mine—go through the shit you’re going through. …It’s never pretty. And I never know what to say to them. Sometimes I just don’t say anything at all…I always think I’ll slip somehow, say or do something that’ll only upset them more.”

“It’s not your fault, Corporal. It’s these fuckin’ wolves. I know killing the leader of this attack won’t make me feel better. I know it won’t bring my boyfriend back.”

“And yet you still wanna rip out his spine.”

Rob looked at the ursine and growled. “Absolutely.”

Behind Skellish and Rob, Margot was holding Deacon and helping him walk down the street. The boar continued to limp from time to time, hoping the bleeding would stop sooner than later. The swine wiggled his big nose and snorted.

“At…at least we get new jobs after this, eh?”

Margot smiled and chuckled wryly. “I suppose the building did get burned down after all of this. We’re kinda unemployed now.”

“Heh…you’re welcome.”

The kangaroo blinked. “What?”

“My…my fat ass and my fat gut saved you! If it hadn’t been for my appetite, and that shit-grenade I had brewin’ in my bowels, we never woulda met that badger or that turtle. We probably would’ve been shot in the streets like dogs, or rounded up and…and gang-raped or something.”

“Are you seriously telling me I need to thank your stomach and your _ass_ for keeping us alive?”

“Hey…been working so far.”

“Yeah, well, doesn’t change the fact that we have to leave all this behind. I mean, _everything_ , Deacon—our jobs, our families and friends…we don’t know what happened to any of them.”

“That’s why cell phones exist.”

“Do you seriously think after all the shit we just went through, I still have my cell phone on me?”

Deacon sighed. “Good point.”

“…Where do we go from here, Deac? What’s our future? What the hell are two pizza deliverers gonna do with their lives? We can’t put on our résumé, ‘Looking for employment after wolf pirates and a robot dragon burned our city down,’ now can we?”

“Well, technically, we _can_ do that—”

Margot huffed and rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

The boar giggled. “Course I do!”

“So, um…”

“Hmm?”

“Do we go our separate ways after this? I mean, we’re just coworkers; after we leave the city, we’ll probably get split apart, taken to different places or something.”

“Oh…well, probably. I-I guess that would happen. I mean, do you _want_ to split up?”

“I think it’d be best if we didn’t. Y’know, we watch each other’s backs and whatnot.”

“Right! That’s what we coworkers who don’t hate each other do! We watch each other’s backs.”

Margot smiled. “Right.”

The kangaroo paused for a moment. Then she reached down and clutched the boar’s left hand tightly. Deacon snorted and glanced at Margot before he turned around and stammered, blushing.

“A-and we-we—we hold…we hold hands. We’re coworkers who don’t hate each other who-who-wh—who hold, um…hold hands.”

Margot grinned. “Right.”


	11. This is the End

She had to reach him. She didn’t know how powerful the bombs were; she didn’t know how many the tortoise carried. But she had to stop him before the dragon destroyed the harbor, or before the dragon set its dreadful eyes on her. She turned around and looked up at the sky as water splashed into the boat and on her body. The sun was starting to set, and the dragon was still hovering very close to the harbor’s perimeters. But from what she could tell, it was more interested in burning down apartments and hotels, not Kinzly and Carson—wherever they were. Kelly panted as she took out a handgun and pointed forward, hoping she’d be able to shoot despite the water splashing around her. She fired a few shots and took out two wolves, then immediately ducked as some of the furry beasts returned fire. The lizard swore but still gripped the handle, turning the tiny boat whenever necessary so she could keep following the tortoise. Kelly waited until some of the gunfire ceased before she lifted her head again and started firing at all the furry beasts. More of the wolves fell and plummeted into the water whilst Marcus continued to head forward.

The giant tortoise stopped near one of the pylons. He parked his dinghy beside a set of stairs leading up to the giant cylindrical structure and hopped out his boat. The tortoise quickly rushed up the stairs carrying his bag of explosives, moments before the lizard finally arrived. Kelly jumped out of her boat as well and headed up the stairs, carrying both handguns firmly. She pointed her guns near the pylon but saw nothing. The lizard waited for a few more seconds before she slowly walked around the platform the pylon was resting on, still staying cautious. She heard someone panting and pushing random buttons on a certain device, but couldn’t exactly figure out who or what it was. Kelly waited for a brief moment before she started to run in a circle along the pylon’s platform. And then she shouted as Marcus took his gun and shot her in the face with it. Kelly fell down as one of her handguns plopped in the water. The tortoise panted as he stared at the reptile’s corpse and exhaled as he resumed working on the bomb.

C’mon…c’mon!”

Marcus’ radio emitted a harsh static noise. He removed it from his shell and huffed. “What, Lyle?! I’m getting the bombs ready now!”

“Good. Just let me know when it’s done. I’m comin’ down there myself to scope out the harbor.”

“I told you, I got it!”

“Then you won’t mind if I survey your brilliant work up close, will you?”

Marcus huffed. “Fine. Whatever.”

Marcus lowered his radio and grumbled to himself as he continued to work on the device. As he stuck the explosives on the pylon, the reptile failed to notice that Kelly was still breathing, and that her right hand was moving…

___________________

Carson lowered his G36 rifle, then immediately lifted his radio and called Kelly.

“Kell-Bell, you stop those fuckers from placing the bomb? …Kelly?”

All the crocodile heard was static. He blinked and stared at the radio before he let out a soft whimper. Carson rubbed his mandible for a moment, seconds before he heard a deathly screech and looked up to see the same dragon hovering around the harbor. Carson swore before he looked at the rooftop Kinzly was on and cupped his hands around his big mouth.

“KINZ! GET YOUR FUNKY ASS OFF THE ROOF! THAT DRAGON’S GONNA SEE YA!”

The skunk looked up as the robotic dragon started to descend near the buildings. Then it landed, and its rider hopped off the creature’s back and started to explore the harbor. The skunk swore as he quickly ran towards the ladder and climbed back down onto the ground. Once he reached the pavement, he panted and held his rifle firmly. After a few moments, the same robot dragon screeched and blew out a large amount of flames before it spread its wings and took flight. Kinzly looked up at the dragon as it flapped its wings and prepared to head to another sector of the city. The skunk was about to say something when he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. The skunk scrunched up his face before he turned around and huffed.

“Dammit, Cars, don’t sneak up on me like that! You damn near—”

“Quiet…someone else is here.”

“Just _one_?”

Carson nodded. “He’s roaming around in the center of the harbor. I’ll circle around and get the drop on him. You keep your gun handy in case something goes wrong.”

“Gotcha.”

Carson ran away from the skunk, leaving Kinzly alone to ponder his thoughts. This was simple. It had to be. All they had to do was stop those beasts from blowing up the bridge, regroup with Michum and the others later, and then this would all be fine. They would all be able to get out of this whole mess alive, intact even. That’s what the skunk was hoping for, anyways. The skunk swallowed hard as he started to move towards another building to his right. Kinzly pressed his back against the door and blinked when he heard a few hefty breaths. The skunk held his rifle firmly and aimed to his left, right, even forward. But nothing was there. The beast blinked again and started to creep around towards the edge of the building, where he peeked past the side of the wall. Kinz swallowed hard and told himself to keep watch. He lifted his radio and spoke into the device.

“Carson, the fuck are ya?”

“I’m still here, buddy…don’t know where the fuck this dragon rider went. I musta lost him. Shit!”

“You want me to head back to the roofs, try to find him up there?”

“Yeah, that’s probably best. I’ll regroup with you later if I don’t see nothin’.”

“Roger that.”

And with that, Kinzly went back to the ladder and quickly rushed up to the roof again. He got down on his belly and pointed his rifle forward, hoping he’d find the wolf somewhere sooner than later. But even as the skunk observed the harbor, he was shocked at how empty the place looked. No wolves, no civilians, no Kelly or Carson—nothing. Kinzly blinked twice before he took his eye away from the scope and sighed. The skunk wiped some sweat off his brow before he licked his lips and looked through the scope again. As he continued to observe the area, his ears twitched. The skunk sniffed and exhaled.

“You didn’t find him either, did you? Fuck—I coulda sworn someone was riding that dragon.”

Kinzly scrunched up his face again when the crocodile got close to him and exhaled on the back of his head.

“Cars, how many times I gotta say it? Stop creeping up behind me when your breath smells like a horse’s dirty ass!”

“Whatever you say, _buddy_.”

Kinzly gasped. And then screamed when Lyle pounced on him and stabbed him just below the spine. The skunk whimpered and shouted as he fired off two shots erratically, only to let go of his weapon. He shouted as he was stabbed a second time; Kinzly flipped himself over, whimpering and swearing as he saw the shirtless brown wolf’s ugly mug. Lyle chuckled as he gripped his knife tightly, then stabbed the skunk in the stomach and dragged the knife down. As Kinzly felt his stomach lining rupturing, he hastily reached into his pocket and pulled out a spare handgun. Lyle shouted and fell down after the skunk shot him in the sides; Kinzly shouted as he reached for the knife and pulled it out, then aimlessly fired at Lyle. The wolf quickly stood up and sprinted away from the skunk, ducking and rolling so he could avoid the gunfire. The gun clicked three times; Kinzly tossed it aside and went for his radio. He was just about to call Carson when Lyle pounced on him again and went straight for the throat.

Kinzly screamed horribly again as the wolf opened his gaping maw and bit down. He crunched on his flesh with ease, biting through the skin and jugular. Blood erupted from Kinzly’s maw, and the skunk found himself gurgling and gripping the radio as he failed to call Carson. Lyle crunched twice and jerked his mouth away, pulling apart a large piece of flesh. The wolf hungrily gulped the fur and flesh before he exhaled and observed the dying skunk. The pirate winced as he grabbed his midriff; the bullet went straight through.

“Fucker…no matter. I’ll just stay here and watch. Nothing more satisfying than a beast bleeding out is there? With all that luscious red blood…hehe.”

Lyle sat down beside Kinzly and smiled. He turned and stared at the skunk while Kinzly kept coughing and gurgling, hoping this was all a horrible nightmare he’d soon wake up from. But it was the opposite. He _was_ awake, and _this_ was the nightmare. The skunk started to calm down as more warm blood flowed from his ravaged neck. There was nothing Kinzly could do anymore but wait until it all ended…

___________________

They finally made it. They were finally at the bridge on their way out of this hell-hole. Yet Rob still couldn’t get his hopes up. His boyfriend was dead, his home had been destroyed, and he had no idea what to do with himself after all this. The war was over; he couldn’t head back even if he wanted to. He had no friends, no place to stay. The badger shut his eyes as he walked beside Margot, Deacon and Corporal Skellish. The koala bear escorted the group through the giant horde of creatures who were also trying to get out of town. Several members of the National Guard were on the bridge as well, telling everyone to remain calm as they moved in an orderly fashion across the giant bridge. Deacon sniffed while Margot shook her thick tail, wondering what would become of her and the chubby pig. The kangaroo scratched behind her ear before she grunted and bumped into a rhino’s sweaty backside. The rhino turned around and snorted at her, and the four beasts found themselves stuck.

“Great. Even when we’re not in a car, we’re _still_ stuck in a traffic jam,” she murmured.

“Better than being chased by some wolf wielding a laser rifle, yeah?” said Skellish.

“S’pose so.”

Deacon huffed. “There’s gotta be a way for this crowd to move faster!”

“No. If that happens, people start panicking. Next thing you know, you’re on the ground, getting stomped on, with damn near no air to breathe. I’m sure that’s the _last_ thing you want,” the corporal reminded him.

“Yeah, but still. How fuckin’ hard is it to walk forward?”

“I got an idea, Deac: stop complaining about the path being blocked and actually go out and try to find a clear way to go!” Margot shouted.

Deacon blinked. “Holy crap—you’re a genius, Margot.”

The kangaroo was surprised to see how swiftly Deacon moved, despite his hefty weight and having sustained a gunshot wound. The burly pig snorted and grunted as he shoved his way around the crowd, moving towards the far left side of the bridge. He stopped when he reached the blue railing and proceeded to climb towards the top of the ledge. The pig looked out into the crowd to find Margot and the others; he gestured for them to follow him towards the side of the bridge, which they did. Deacon continued to traverse along the edge of the railing, gripping the steel cables supporting the bridge as he moved.

“HEY! GET DOWN FROM THERE!” a soldier shouted.

The boar ignored him and continued to move, guiding Margot and the others towards their right. When the soldier started to chase after Deacon, the boar finally hopped down and disappeared into the crowd. The soldier lost track of the swine—as did Margot, Skellish and Rob.

“Dammit, Deac.”

“Where the hell did he go?”

“I’m—OW! Hey, get off me!” Margot shouted.

The crowd started to pick up speed. Everyone heard deep roaring in the background and saw the dragon’s silhouette in the sky. None of them were sticking around to try and see who the beast would devour next. Rob held Skellish’s paw tightly while the kangaroo grunted and shouted as she was lost in the crowd. She swore multiple times as she tried to shove various beasts out the way, only to find herself bouncing all around as she attempted to make some distance. The kangaroo shouted with frustration before she threw herself in-between a few beasts and slammed her body into a metro bus. The roo panted as she clung towards the bus, waiting until she got a better view of her friends out in the distance.

“Margot?! MARGOT! The fuck are you?!” Rob shouted.

Margot heard more shouting in the distance but couldn’t make out what was going on. The civilians were moving much quicker now, almost to the point of knocking other beasts down. She could barely find a decent amount of breathing room; someone bumped into her, while the same sweaty rhino from before roughly knocked his big body into her, causing her to fall flat on her back. The kangaroo grunted as she felt all sorts of footpaws pressing into her body, with no one around to help her stand.

“MARGOT!”

___________________

The tortoise panted as he finished setting all the right features on the bomb now firmly planted onto the pylon. He hit two more buttons and the timer finally beeped and began to count down. Marcus huffed as he removed another bomb from his shell. He had to move fast or else the bomb would explode with him still in the danger zone. So Marcus clutched another bomb from his shell. Just as he started to move, Kelly sat up and picked up the second handgun off the ground. Marcus yelped, and then fell backwards after Kelly shot him five times. Even with his big shell on, two of the bullets managed to make it through, puncturing his chest. The giant tortoise panted and wheezed as he found himself lying on his shell. Kelly slowly got back to her feet, albeit she winced after groping the bullet wound that maimed her cheek. She wiped some of the blood off before stomping towards Marcus and kicking his gun away. Then she pointed the silenced gun at him and huffed.

“Where’s the bomb?”

“It…it’s too late…you’re too late.”

“Shut up.” Kelly walked backwards towards the device and looked at it. Marcus coughed three times as he started to bleed out. The lizard snorted and stomped towards the creature again.

“How do I disarm it? Not that whole red wire, blue wire shit is it?”

“No…j-just this button…right here…”

Marcus lifted a tiny device from his shell and pressed a button, causing Kelly to raise an eyebrow. Marcus exhaled as he dropped the device. “There. It’s disabled.”

Kelly cautiously walked back over to the bomb and glanced at the timer. Then she frowned once she noticed that it was still counting down.

“What are you talking about? It says there’s only two minutes left!”

Marcus grinned. “Course it does. I just disabled the failsafe, that’s all. Along with…with most of the time…”

The tortoise coughed up some blood. “You…you think I’m stupid? I-I know…I know the second…I help you disarm it…you’ll kill me. I know…if this bomb doesn’t blow…Lyle will kill-kill me. So…fuck both of you. I-I get…to die my way…and you don’t get…to stop the bomb.”

Marcus looked at Kelly and flashed a depraved grin at her. “Everybody…everybody loses…”

Kelly listened to the tortoise laugh hoarsely as he wheezed and coughed. The lizard looked at the bomb again and noticed she only had ninety seconds left. That wasn’t enough time to disarm it, and she knew there was no way she could deactivate it by randomly picking at the wires and configuration inside. So the lizard sprinted towards the dinghy, started up the motor, and headed for the harbor. It was too late now; she, Carson and Kinzly would have to reevaluate their plan.

“Carson, come in! I couldn’t figure out how to disarm the bomb; it’s gonna go off! We gotta find some way to warn those people to get off the bridge!”

But Kelly heard no response from the crocodile, just a harsh segment of static.

“…Carson?”

___________________

“The fuck you doing, Kinz?” 

No one answered the crocodile. The brown reptile looked up at the rooftop but didn’t see the skunk’s rifle. Carson blinked again moments before he lowered his radio and started to walk towards the building. The hell’s goin’ on, the croc thought. Carson was just starting to reach the building when he heard deep growling and saw a shadow from the corner up ahead. Carson gripped his rifle tightly and waited for Lyle to show up before he shot at him. The brown wolf hid again as Carson fired and waited until the crocodile ran out of ammo. Carson backed away as the rifle clicked several times; he tossed his gun on the ground as Lyle came after him with his large sword drawn. Then the brown crocodile ran backwards, rolled along the ground, and picked up one of the fallen pirates’ swords. The next thing Carson knew, he was shouting and grunting as he violently swung his sword around and dodged or parried Lyle’s attacks. The brown wolf smacked his sword at the crocodile’s weapon, their blades ringing so noisily it was almost deafening. Carson swore as his hands began to shake from the impacts; he backed away and panted as Lyle approached him.

“Now don’t tell me some skunk and a shirtless crocodile did all of _this_ to my army.”

Carson growled as he blocked two more attacks from Lyle and tried to take his head off. He failed, and the wolf ducked and backed away. Carson laughed.

“Never underestimate the power of a group of twenty-something-year-olds.”

Carson and Lyle continued to fight each other, with the former getting the upper-hand on Lyle after the brown wolf slipped in a pool of another creature’s blood. Carson swung his blade down, nearly cleaving the wolf’s head in two. Then the crocodile sprinted towards Lyle and crouched down. Lyle pointed his sword downwards, unaware that the crocodile planned on jumping high into the air so he could lop off one of Lyle’s ears. The canine shouted and immediately backed away, grabbing his left ear as it started to bleed into his paw. He swore and took a deep breath, now missing half his ear. Carson looked at the large wolf and smirked, while Lyle stared at the crocodile and grinned as well.

“Good…s’very good of you, mate! But you forgot one thing about us pirates…”

“What’s that? You all like to wet the bed?”

Lyle shook his head. “We cheat.”

Carson frowned when he saw Lyle reach into his back pocket. And then he pulled out a silver pistol and started to fire. The crocodile rushed towards Lyle after deflecting some of the bullets, but his efforts were futile. Carson shouted as one bullet grazed his shoulder, and then another went into his thigh. The crocodile faltered, collapsing to the ground as he almost dropped his sword. Carson panted as he held up his weapon and tried to defend himself, but he was caught off-guard. Their blades clacked and emitted sparks four times; Carson groaned as he forced himself to stand tall. The crocodile spun around twice before ducking and swiping at Lyle’s footpaws. Lyle hopped up and spun around too, just far enough to cut Carson’s abdomen open. The crocodile grunted and gasped as he looked down and saw the gaping wound. He whimpered softly as the sword felt heavy in in his hands. Carson coughed and backed away slowly just as his radio began to emit noise.

“Carson, come in!” Kelly shouted.

The brief moment of distraction was enough for Lyle to deliver the final blow. He snarled as he ran forward and impaled the crocodile right through his stomach. Carson grunted as he felt the long blade piercing through his gut and ravaging his insides. Lyle snickered in the reptile’s face as he looked down at the radio and heard Kelly’s voice again.

“…Carson?”

Lyle snatched the radio from Carson’s pocket and moved away from him. He licked his lips as the beast slowly collapsed to his knees, bleeding from his torso and thigh.

“Who’s this? Your little friend? Your partner?”

“F…fuck you…” Carson coughed.

Lyle walked back over to the crocodile and roughly removed the sword from his abdomen. Carson gasped again as he started to bleed out profusely, the warm blood oozing from his stomach and creating a pool of sludge on the ground. Carson was about to reach for another weapon when Lyle proceeded to walk behind him and placed his long sword just beneath Carson’s chin. The beast growled and wagged his tail as he stared out into the harbor.

“We’re just gonna sit right here and wait until your li’l friend shows up. And then I’m gonna cut your throat wiiiiiide open just for her to see.”

Carson tried to move, but the moment he did, Lyle nicked his neck to the point where it started to bleed. The crocodile decided that staying still was his best option. All he could do now was wait for Kelly, hope that she managed to get him out of this horrible predicament. So the two creatures stayed still, listening to the wind blowing and the dragon flapping its wings in the distance. The sound of the dinghy’s motor became more apparent as time moved on; Lyle stared straight ahead as he spotted the small boat approach one of the planks and stop. Kelly panted as she hopped off the boat and sprinted onto the docks again. She held out her gun the moment she saw Lyle standing behind Carson with his blade drawn.

“You know how this works, darling! Drop your gun, and your friend here doesn’t get hurt!”

Kelly looked down at Carson as the crocodile shook his head. “D-don’t…don’t do it.”

Kelly smirked as she slowly began to approach Lyle. “Kill him. What do I care?”

The wolf blinked. “Clearly this crocodile must mean something to you. Or did I already slay your boyfriend, the skunk on the rooftop whose throat I bit out?”

Kelly frowned and stared at Lyle with wide eyes. Lyle sighed.

“I _always_ do love that look. There’s something…invigorating—something that just tingles my spine when I see it! Nothing makes another person feel despair than knowing they just lost someone they love. And watching that _gaze_ happen, the realization flow in…beautiful.”

Kelly gritted her teeth as she got closer. “Like I said…kill him. He’s not my husband. He’s annoying as shit. He’s clingy, doesn’t give me any space, and if you haven’t noticed already, his breath smells like burning garbage and manure. Tch, you _really_ think I give a shit if you kill him?”

“Kelly…just shoot. Fuckin’ shoot him!”

Lyle shrugged. “Maybe you do. Maybe not.”

Kelly didn’t hesitate. She took Carson’s advice and fired. And that’s when the bomb exploded and everything went wrong. The pylon was so close to the harbor that the resulting explosion was felt over a mile away. All three creatures stumbled or nearly fell after getting blasted by the explosion’s impact. Kelly shouted as she dropped her gun and fired at nothing but air. Lyle kept his balance while Carson fell on his wounded stomach. Kelly panted as she tried to sprint for the gun, and then shouted when Lyle threw a knife into her stomach. The lizard collapsed onto her side while Carson screamed hysterically.

“KELLY! YOU MOTHER—”

Carson snarled when Lyle used his sword to slice Carson’s Achilles’ tendons in half. He quickly walked back over to Kelly and crouched down beside her.

“No worries, buddy! Your little bitch friend’s still alive! C’mon now, you can do it!”

Carson ignored the wolf’s relentless teasing. All that mattered now was reaching Kelly and getting her to safety. Just a few more feet and he’d be right there. Maybe he couldn’t walk. Maybe he was bleeding out. Maybe Kelly had a knife in her gut. But they were still alive. They could still make it through all this. Kelly whined as she rolled onto her belly and started to drag her body across the ground like Carson was doing. She gritted her teeth and exhaled, stopping just when Lyle stood beside her. He crouched down and pointed his handgun at her scalp, still grinning. Carson wailed as his eyes watered, and tears began to flow down his face.

“Kelly… Wait…please. Please don’t,” Carson begged.

“Ooooh, just a liiiiiiiittle bit more now! There you go! You got it!”

Carson kept crawling as the wolf started to squeeze the trigger. Kelly gazed at the crocodile’s eyes. Carson gritted his teeth and started to wail. He was less than a foot away from his girlfriend. And then the crocodile heard a cacophonous blast, followed by a red mist spraying against his face. Carson didn’t need to wipe the fluids off. He didn’t need to inspect Kelly’s body. He knew exactly what happened. Lyle stood up and kept watching the crocodile as he started to sob uncontrollably, still staring at his girlfriend’s corpse. Lyle sighed and shook his head.

“Aww, that’s too bad. And you were just right there too,” Lyle muttered.

Carson couldn’t even look up at the brown wolf anymore. All he did was glare at Kelly’s body as it began to cool and more blood was released all over the ground. Lyle walked beside the brown crocodile, twirling his handgun as he circled him.

“And once again, it looks as if the mighty Captain Lyle Krinkor triumphs! Not sure what you idiots were trying to do going to the bridge over there, but whatever it was, you failed. Horribly. …I really wish you creatures would listen to me more.”

Lyle crouched down and stared at Carson’s face. “Don’t you see? You _can’t_ win. You can’t. This is a new age, the age of the pirates, the rise of Captain—”

Lyle squealed in a high-pitched voice when Carson snarled and pounced on him. He knocked the wolf to the ground and started to lash at his stomach, using his claws to tear at the beast’s flesh. Lyle whimpered and squirmed as the muscle-bound crocodile released spittle all over his face. The wolf tried to shove the reptile’s head backwards, but Carson ended up biting Lyle’s left paw so hard he drew blood and went down to the bone. Then Carson roared and bit next to the wolf’s throat, almost ripping out his jugular. He removed a chunk of flesh and fur from the captain’s body, causing the canine to scream. Desperate, the whimpering canine reached backwards and grabbed his gun again, which he promptly used to shoot Carson in the head with. Lyle shut his eyes as blood and brain fragments splattered all over his face, and then he exhaled with relief and shoved Carson’s body off of him. He whined as he sat up and stumbled over towards a stack of metal crates.

“Fuck…fuck, FUCK! Cocksucker…”

Lyle pressed a paw down onto his wound and snarled as the wound continued to bleed and sting. Then he picked up his radio and spoke into the device.

“Pryllic…Pryllic, come in!”

“Yes, Captain?”

Lyle huffed twice and wiggled his ears. “Kill ‘em. You-you hear me? Kill every single one of those fuckers in the hotel!”

“But…Captain, the hostages are our—”

“What the fuck did I just say, Pryllic?!”

“…Yes, Captain. Of course sah.”

“Good. You stay there; I’m gonna come to you soon. The second those fuckers who killed Dolan arrive, we’re gonna end _all_ of this. Then the rest of the city will be mine for the taking.”

“Aye, Captain. I’ll see you later.”

Lyle exhaled as he lowered his radio and panted a few more times. The bomb had gone off and the three skaters were all dead, but so were Dolan and Marcus. The wolf still hadn’t gotten in contact with Teri or Geivers; he was starting to wonder if they had been killed too. But the wolf didn’t change his plans. He knew this could still work in his favor; he just had to eliminate the rest of his opposition. The brown wolf thought about walking away at first, up until he spotted the robot dragon fly over the harbor and towards the bridge. The wolf couldn’t help but smile as the mechanical beast blew its fire breath at the creatures on the bridge; the resulting shrieks were so vociferous that Lyle could hear them clearly where he stood. The sadistic beast groaned as he started to limp away from the harbor, leaving Carson, Kinzly, and Kelly’s bodies to rot.

___________________

The military commander stared at all the reports he had received, along with the colonel sitting across his desk from him. He observed all the Intel carefully again before exhaling.

“Diamond City? How did they manage—”

“We’re still trying to determine that, sir. But reports from the National Guard aren’t…well, they aren’t good.”

“And we have confirmation that the weapon has been released? We know _for sure_ that it’s in the city?”

“Yes, sir.”

The commander shut his eyes for a moment before he rubbed his chin and nodded slowly. Then he opened his eyes back up and sniffed.

“Do it.”

“But, sir, shouldn’t we wait for the evacuati—”

“It’s too late. We have to do this now, before those pirates or that weapon ends up terrorizing another city.”

The other canine sitting across from the commander sighed. “So be it.”


	12. And Then There Were Three

Margot shouted as two creatures stomped on his fingers. Another one kicked her in the back of her head, causing the kangaroo to groan as more beasts continued to stomp on her. Then she felt two burly paws on her back and found herself being hoisted back up to her footpaws. 

“You okay?!” Rob asked.

Margot exhaled. “Fine, I’m fine. Did you find Deacon?”

“No—”

The badger and kangaroo grunted and swayed as a sudden boom caused the bridge to shake. Margot lost her footing again, although this time Rob caught her before she fell down. The bridge groaned noisily just before some of the cables began to rumble, emitting strange metallic twang-like sounds. 

“Fuck—that was a bomb!”

“What!”

Corporal Skellish rushed towards Rob and Margot just as some of the beasts started screaming and jogging across the bridge. More creatures fell down and were trampled along the way while the koala bear tried to keep the group standing. Then they heard a vicious pop, followed by the bridge groaning again and listing to the left. Some members of the National Guard and police force were trying to calm everyone down while the koala bear was trying to find Deacon.

“DEACON! Where the hell are you?!” she shouted.

“Deacon!”

Rob rushed over to the side of the bridge as another wire popped. The badger looked over near the railing and found a chubby boar climbing up onto the side of the bridge. He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

“Hey! HEY! WHY’D YOU STOP?!” Deacon shouted.

Rob was about to rush towards the boar when a large shadow appeared. The trio froze as another wire popped. The civilians all looked up into the sky and saw the menacing silhouette that filled everyone with fear. The metal dragon was back and hovering around the area. 

“Deacon, get down! GET DOWN NOW!” Margot shouted.

The boar tried to climb down the railing, but in the process of doing so, he tumbled forward and almost fell off. The boar screamed as he clung onto the side of the bridge, whimpering and thrashing his legs, moments away from falling down into the river. Margot started to sprint towards the boar with Skellish and Rob trailing behind her, just in time for the dragon to hover right beside the bridge. Deacon started to climb back onto the railing, just in time for the dragon to open its maw.

“DEACON, LOOK OUT!” Rob screamed.

Deacon turned and gasped as the dragon jerked its head forward and unleashed a colossal amount of fire onto the bridge, setting dozens of people on fire in only a matter of seconds. Deacon didn’t have a chance. He shrieked at the top of his lungs as the fire set his entire body aflame. The boar shouted as the flames burned through his clothes, his skin and flesh. All of it started to melt off his bones in seconds. Even his eyeballs felt like they were boiling inside his skull, ready to explode. The boar screamed as he toppled off the bridge, plummeting hundreds of feet to his death.

“No! NOOOOO, DEACON! DEACON!”

Rob and Skellish grabbed the kangaroo as she tried to run forward, thinking she could help the boar somehow. They started to drag her backwards as the bridge continued to groan and more wires popped.

“DEACON!”

“He’s dead! We have to move! NOW!”

The dragon roared as it climbed on top of the bridge, planting its hind feet on the bars and lifting its front legs up. The dragon lashed at some of the wires supporting the bridge, cutting them in half with its razor-sharp claws. The pylon that was heavily damaged by the bomb began to crumble and crunch, unable to support the dragon’s weight. More wires snapped from all the pressure, and all the supports started to creak and give in, gradually popping or loosening. The dragon flapped its wings and hovered around the bridge, watching as the structure kept dipping downwards as it steadily collapsed. Suddenly, part of the road broke apart in the center of the structure. It tilted downwards at first as the pylon crumbled, causing more wires to snap as everything was destroyed. Several civilians toppled down into the sea, screaming as they all joined Deacon and dozens of others in the afterlife. Few civilians who were past the center of the bridge sprinted and jumped to the other side, while everyone else was forced to flee in the opposite direction.

“Go, go! GO, GO, GO!” Rob shouted.

All the wires were popping around the three beasts as the road started to collapse behind them. They could still hear everyone screaming as they plummeted, with the trio shouting and yelping as the concrete nearly fell under their footpaws. By the time the bridge did stop falling, nearly a third of the structure was destroyed, and over half the civilians caught on the structure had perished. Skellish ran ahead to try and clear the area, just as one of the cables started to groan.

“Whoa, whoa, wait! STOP!”

The corporal tried to run after a few civilians just as the cable snapped. It groaned as it leaned sideways and collapsed onto the bridge, crushing the koala bear and several others. Rob and Margot hopped over the cable and resumed sprinting towards safety as the remainder of the structure fell into the water with a tremendous series of splashes. Rob and Margot ran as fast as they could until they hopped over a few dead bodies and reached dry land again. As soon as they found themselves back on the main roads, the badger and kangaroo spotted the dragon hovering above them again, blowing fire and releasing what appeared to be dung in different sections of the city. The dragon landed in the harbor for a brief moment before it quickly took to the skies again, carrying the captain of the pirates along with it. Rob and Margot breathed heavily as they moved past the crowd of screaming beasts and found an abandoned factory to rest near. Both of them leaned against the wall of a building recently destroyed by the dragon and started to pant and wheeze several times over. Rob collapsed beside the wall while Margot whimpered and started to wipe her eyes. 

“Fuck…he was—”

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry, Margot…he’s gone.”

“The bridge…Christ, Rob. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?”

The badger rubbed his head slowly before he shook it. “A boat…that’s the only option left. There-there’s gotta be a boat somewhere, or a train maybe. S’all we can do now.”

The kangaroo huffed and sobbed quietly as she sat down beside the war veteran. Both of them stared at the fleeing civilians as they contemplated what they should do at this point. Rob shook his head moments before he stood up and reached down to grab Margot’s paw.

“We have to go.”

“Go where? We both know that dragon’s gonna get us. That or all these fuckin’ wolves.”

“We can’t think like that now! Clearly you haven’t seen the same kind of shit I’ve seen, but that doesn’t mean we get to sit down and quit, that we just wait until the Grim Reaper comes along and claims us! You got two good legs, don’t you?”

Margot huffed. “Yeah, so?”

“Then get up and walk.”

The kangaroo looked up at the badger’s stern face and paw shortly before the pizza deliverer shook her head. “So…gonna persuade me to keep going, Edward? Fine…let’s go then.”

Margot reached up and grabbed Rob’s paw. And then the two beasts started to walk away from the destroyed bridge.

___________________

Michum, Tully and Tracey weren’t far from the hotel now, although they were starting to get worried. They saw no National Guard, no other police officers—it seemed as if all the help they might’ve been able to receive was all gone. All they had now were each other. Michum looked down at the gauze wrapped around his torso before he poked at it a few times. Tracey walked behind the hyena and smacked him across the back of his head.

“Ow! The hell?!”

“You got stabbed with a beam sword; you didn’t cut your finger on the playground. Don’t pick at it; it’ll only get worse.”

“But it looks so gross and detailed and inviting,” Tully remarked.

“If I took a shit on the ground right now, and it was purple and had chunks of crayon in it, would you pick at that too?”

The elephant snorted and moved his trunk. “Yes.”

Tracey huffed and rolled her eyes. “Never mind. Christ, I wish Kelly was here.”

Michum looked at his radio. “Yeah, it’s gonna be dark soon; they should’ve given us an update by now or something.”

The hyena lifted the radio up to his mouth. “Yo, Cars! Whatcha guys find at the bridge? These clowns have a bomb with ‘em? …Carson?”

“Oh, Carson! Which one was he: the skunk who pissed himself when he saw me, or the really giant crocodile with sewer breath?”

Michum paused. “Captain Asshole, I presume.” The hyena sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Let me guess: you captured my friends and now you want me to back away from the Marxt Hotel. My friends will be alive, but all the innocent people in the hotel will die, right?”

“No, I already killed your friends. Li’l bitch lizard too.”

Michum froze. He blinked as his paw began to shake and his tail went limp. “Y…no.”

“Yep! Killed all three of ‘em. That giant croc took a chunk outta me before I killed him. But I got to him eventually! I painted the ground with his brains. Yeah, just _painted_ it.”

Michum still didn’t say anything. He could only stare at the radio as Lyle laughed on the other end of the device. Tully and Tracey looked at the hyena and frowned.

“Mich? What’s wrong buddy?” the elephant asked.

Michum couldn’t help but picture the wolf grinning on the other end of the radio. “Oh, got nothing to say? No witty remark? No sass? C’mon, gimme some sassy comments! Talk to me in a condescending tone like you did before!”

Michum lowered his radio, even though Lyle kept talking.

“That’s what I thought. Tell you what: I’m gonna head over there right now, _just_ to see what your face looks like. And then I’m gonna claw your eyeballs from your fuckin’ skull—”

Michum turned off the radio. And then he dropped the device on the ground. The hyena looked down at the radio and stomped on it five times until it shattered beneath his large footpaw. Michum inhaled sharply and let out a shuddering breath, seconds before he whimpered and started to walk around beside a tree. He leaned against the tree bark and sniffled just as Tracey and Tully approached him.

“The hell’s wrong, Mich?”

The hyena nodded and sniffled again. “Um, Cars and the others.”

“What about ‘em?”

“Dead. They—they’re, um…they’re dead,” the hyena whimpered.

“Fuck,” Tully muttered.

“How?” Tracey asked. “The fuck happened? I-I thought…wasn’t—”

“We split up and…” Michum sniffled and felt his eyes watering. “We weren’t there, so now…”

Michum slowly slid down against the tree and started crying. He tried wiping his eyes and forcing himself to calm down, but the tears kept flowing with no signs of stopping. Tully turned away from Michum as he felt his eyes watering as well; Tracey was just as broken up as the hyena was, albeit she wasn’t crying as hard. Tully started swearing and pacing back and forth, talking to himself and trying to reevaluate the plan.

“Fuckers…fucking cocksuckers!”

“Maybe—maybe he was lying, Mich!” Tracey stated. “He could just be tryin’ to fuck with us—make us upset so we end up making a mistake!”

“They’re fuckin’ dead, Tracey! They’re…”

Michum shook his head and resumed sobbing. Tully huffed fiercely and whimpered as he gritted his teeth. Then he slammed his fist against the same tree and started wailing beside Tracey and Michum. He swore as loudly as possible before he collapsed to his knees, now realizing that there were only three of them left. 

“They’re gone…they’re all gone,” Michum whimpered.

The trio couldn’t do anything but stay on the ground and cry, slowly becoming aware that they might not save the city after all.


	13. Does it Matter in the End?

Tracey, Michum, and Tully all looked up at the giant hotel in front of them. The sun had nearly set, and the weather was beginning to change. The three heroes looked at each other before they heard muted gunfire in the distance, followed by more beasts screaming and crying for mercy. Michum sighed heavily and shook his head.

“They’re killing the hostages,” the hyena concluded.

“Then we gotta stop ‘em!” Tracey shouted.

Michum shrugged. “We’ll probably be too late. As always.”

“Now is not the time to be pessimistic!”

“I’m not being pessimistic, Trace. Just realistic. This hotel is massive. No matter how fast we go, how hard we fight, we won’t save everyone.”

“Then what’s the point? If our friends are dead, and these hostages are gonna perish no matter what we do, we may as well fuckin’ blow town!” Tully shouted.

Michum shook his head. “No. These fuckers took our friends away. They slaughtered thousands—probably millions—of innocent people. And for what? Because they want to? Because they wanna claim this territory as theirs? Because this Captain Lyle Krinkor is a sadistic bastard who should’ve been drowned in chlorine the second his bitch mother pushed him out of her? Reasons don’t really matter at this point. So sure, maybe this captain did slay our friends. Sure, maybe all these hostages are gonna die despite all our efforts. But if that’s the case, then we best make damn sure that all these fuckers pay for what they’ve done.”

Michum walked in front of the main entrance and looked back over at Tully and Tracey. “We can’t let them win! We can’t let them enjoy this victory! If these assholes are gonna destroy this whole city, they we better make sure that we send ‘em to hell before this happens again somewhere else!”

Tracy and Tully looked at each other before the latter sighed. “Suppose runnin’ like hell ain’t much of a plan is it?”

“Hmph. So…we die in a blaze of glory, huh?” Tracey asked.

Michum nodded. “More or less.”

“Fine then. Maybe this _is_ it for us…”

Tully looked at the ground and spotted a very large Gatling gun lying beside a burly dead wolf. The elephant grinned. “So if we’re going out in a blaze of glory…can I do so using that big-ass gun over there?”

Michum chuckled. “Absolutely.”

Tracey shook her head and snickered. “Even when we’re against all odds, you clowns still manage to enjoy yourselves.”

“Everyone, grab as many weapons as you can. We’re gonna tear these wolves a new tailhole!”

“YEAH!” shouted Tully.

Tracey ran over and picked up three handguns and placed them all in her pockets. Then she acquired some smoke grenades, frag grenades, and a custom sniper rifle that she strapped to her back. After placing the rifle on her back, the okapi blinked and started to survey which way she should go. Meanwhile, Michum gathered up a shotgun and another sword in case he lost his trusty beam sword again. Tully acquired as many rifles he could carry on his giant body before he picked up the giant Gatling gun, grunting and panting as he carried the gun in both hands. Tracey looked at the two male creatures before she rubbed her nose.

“Think I saw a fire escape ladder back here. I’m gonna head inside through the back. Maybe we can’t save all the hostages, but we might be able to save _some_ of them.”

Michum nodded. “Good idea.”

“Which way you guys going?”

Tully grinned. “The front.”

Tracey snickered. “Course you are.”

“Fine. Let’s get going!”

Tracey started to head towards the escape ladder, while Tully and Michum decided to walk towards the front door. While the elephant and hyena prepared to wreak havoc, Tracey started to storm up the ladder, panting and grunting, hoping the weight of her weapons didn’t keep her down. She climbed all the way until she arrived on the fifth floor, where she came across a flight of stairs. The okapi took out two of her pistols and armed them with silencers. She peeked inside one of the windows and spotted three wolves sleeping or relaxing, with a few naked beasts lying on the floor beside them all. Tracey frowned, then immediately fired her weapons inside the hotel room and murdered all the wolves. The glass damaged, Tracey broke the window with her gun before jumping inside the hotel room. She sprinted over to the door leading into the room and opened it up, where she found more wolves in the hallway.

“THE FUCK?!”

The wolves didn’t have a chance. Tracey fired from both pistols immediately, causing all the wolves to shout as she filled them all with holes. She patrolled the hallway, waiting impatiently for the other wolves to come out of hiding. Some of them heard the commotion and stormed out of their rooms, only to be cut down in a matter of seconds by Tracey’s firearms. When the okapi ran out of ammo, she grabbed a fallen assault rifle and started to mow through the wolves in the way. Some of the kidnapped civilians heard the commotion and used this opportunity to try and run to freedom. Tracey gestured for the fleeing innocents to head for the stairs or to run outside using the fire escape route she took. The okapi heard violent gunfire several floors below and nodded. Must be Mich and Tully, she thought. The striped creature waved for all the fleeing citizens to head down the stairs and gave some of the wounded police officers a grenade or other weapon she found if they needed one. Once the floor was clear, Tracey sprinted up the stairs and headed for the sixth floor next.

The okapi kicked open the door and shouted as she fired from her assault rifle, taking out all of the sentries in the corridor. Some of the wolves were swearing and trying to run away, fully aware that the okapi was out for blood. Some canines tried to fight back or reflected the gunfire with their swords, but their efforts were futile. Tracey sprinted down the corridor mowing down the wolves in her path until she ran out of ammo. When the gun was empty, she grabbed the barrel of it and used the giant gun like a baseball bat, whacking the next wolf she saw in the head with the rifle. After breaking the creature’s nose, Tracey swore and kicked the wolf in the head, shortly before reaching down and picking up the creature’s submachinegun. The wolf panted and held up his paws.

“Wait—”

Tracey filled the wolf’s head with dozens of holes, then turned and headed to the left so she could reach the elevators. She pushed the up button on the control pad beside the elevator and waited. The okapi looked up at the numbers and noticed someone else was heading up to meet her. Tracey spat on the floor, backed away, then aimed for both doors of the elevator. She took a few deep breaths and waited, knowing a full group of canines were trapped inside one of the boxes. The okapi heard a loud ding, followed by the double doors opening. The second they opened, Tracey started to squeeze the trigger. And then stopped after looking at Tully and Michum’s faces.

“Sup?”

Tracey huffed. “We have radios—you coulda told me you were coming up the elevator! Jesus—almost shot you just then.”

“But you didn’t,” Tully snorted.

“No, I didn’t. Seems like you guys were having fun downstairs.”

Michum looks at Tully’s smoking gun and all the blood and chunks of flesh sprayed all over his body before he grinned. “No. What makes you say that?”

Tracey grinned. “No reason. So where you guys heading next?”

“Upstairs. They got another wide-open resting atrium up there or whatever the fuck it’s called. We’re gonna clear that all out and keep working floor by floor,” said Michum.

“What about you, Trace?” Tully asked.

“I’ll head up and work my way down. Whatever floors you miss or don’t clear, I’ll cover.”

“Good. See you later then. Just make sure you radio us if you need help!”

“Make sure you radio me if you’re in the damn elevator so I don’t shoot you by mistake.”

“Will do.”

Tully and Michum went into the elevator on the left, whilst Tracey decided to take the one on the right. Both of them hit the designated floor numbers; Tracey headed for the tenth floor whereas Michum and Tully headed for the seventh. Then the doors closed slowly, and the creatures departed.

___________________

Pryllic huffed as he paced back and forth on the floor, gathering up all his weapons after hearing the commotion downstairs. All of the mercenaries clad in camouflage outfits started to run around on the floor, heading towards the stairs and elevator. 

“We’ve lost the first four floors! What the fuck is going on, Pryllic?!” asked one merc.

“Just shut up and go cut off the assailants! I’ll meet up with you soon enough; the captain should be here shortly too!”

“Good. My wolves won’t last much longer from what it sounds like.”

The blue wolf swore as he clutched his assault rifle and started to walk towards the stairs alongside the other wolf commander. “There shouldn’t be that many of them. If anything, the two of us should be able to take ‘em out.”

“Whatever. Just tell the captain to get his ass down here as soon as possible!”

___________________

Tracey stayed in the elevator for a moment until she realized that the wolves on the other side were clearly on alert. The okapi hid behind the control panel section of the elevator as she heard chatter on the other side of the doors. Once the elevator dinged and the doors opened, dozens of bullets were sprayed inside the elevator. Tracey swore and crouched down as two burly wolves on the other side continued to fire from their assault rifles. The okapi waited patiently for both of them to stop shooting before she turned and sprayed both of them with her submachine gun. After the wolves fell, Tracey turned to her left and found herself walking down a very narrow corridor filled with wolves. She fired from her submachine gun as much as possible before shooting the lock off one of the hotel room doors. Then she shouted and threw herself inside. The wolves returned fire as Tracey panted and sprinted for the bed. She threw herself over the giant piece of furniture and flipped the bed over, using it for cover.

The okapi crouched down and waited for one wolf to come in with a shotgun. She blasted the wolf away, just before two more mercenaries came inside. Tracey shot them all down as well before realizing that her magazine was empty. The okapi muttered to herself before she released the magazine and inserted a fresh one into the weapon. Then she dashed away from cover and grabbed one of the shotguns off the floor. She fired off a few more rounds from her automatic weapon before she took a grenade from her trousers and tossed it out into the hallway. Someone shouted that a frag had been thrown, seconds before the green explosive burst, blasting some of the mercenaries apart. Tracey sprinted towards the closet door and opened it up. It lead to the other closet door for the adjacent hotel room. The okapi kicked the door open and sprinted into the other room so she could flank the mercenaries. Then she closed the door slowly and headed for the room’s main door. Tracey opened it up and spotted the wolves heading for the other room she was just inside. She dropped the submachine gun so she could hold the shotgun properly, and proceeded to pump the mercenaries full of lead. Four of them went down in seconds while the other ones caught on to what the okapi was doing and decided to flank her as well. 

Tracey swore when the mercenaries started to catch on to her plan, which resorted in her changing her tactics. The okapi dug into her pockets and fished out one of the smoke grenades. She pulled the pin on the explosive and tossed it in the middle of the hallway; seconds later, the grenade went off, releasing an acrid cloud of smoke that was hard to see through. Tracey covered her nose and mouth as she sprinted for the stairs and began to run up another floor. But then she heard the sound of more beasts stomping down the steps and exhaled.

“For fuck’s sake,” she grumbled.

Tracey changed her plan again and headed downstairs. There was no way she could take on all the wolves in a place so constricted, so she headed down two floors until she reached the eighth floor. The okapi bashed the door in and slammed it shut, only to shout when a wolf tossed a knife at her, hitting her in the torso. Tracey swore again and removed the knife as quickly as possible, where she promptly tossed the knife back at the canine who threw it at her. Tracey refused to slow down because of the minor injury; she pressed on, mowing down more wolves in her path. When the shotgun clicked several times, she tossed the gun aside and switched to her sniper rifle. The mercenary wolves from upstairs figured out she was on the floor and kicked the door in. Tracey removed another grenade from her back pocket and tossed it forward at the door. One of the wolves threw himself on top of the explosive, and Tracey swore after the grenade minimized the damage. She ran backwards shooting at the canines with her rifle until it was time to reload. Then she sprinted into the next corridor.

Tracey slammed the door shut again and panted as she locked it and looked for something to block the door. She found a table, along with a dresser and grunted as she pressed against the giant piece of furniture with her back. The dresser toppled over in front of the door; Tracey went ahead and blocked the door with the table as well for extra protection. She crouched down, taking note that the corridor she was in had windows. Even she was smart enough to figure out that there were snipers somewhere across the building. And her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted the deathly red laser sighting shining through glass panes. Tracey was about to take position when she lifted her radio and messaged Tully and Michum.

“Y’all okay?”

“Oh yeah! We’re mowin’ ‘em down too fast to keep count!” shouted Tully.

“What about you, Mich?”

“I’m doin’ good, Trace. We’re moving to the eighth floor now.”

“Good. Take care of the goons in the staircase. And watch the windows. I think there—”

Tracey stopped talking when she heard Tully shout over the other end. The okapi blinked and started to frown.

“Tully?”


	14. Remember When COD Was a Fish?

“Make sure you radio me if you’re in the damn elevator so I don’t shoot you by mistake.”

“Will do.”

Michum and Tully headed up in the elevator to the seventh floor. Tully grinned widely as he gripped his Gatling gun, ready to rip more wolves to shreds. Michum took out his beam sword and activated it again, wielding his gun in one paw and the sword in the other.

“This is it. You ready, buddy?”

“Does a hyena shit in the woods when he’s drunk?”

Tully turned and looked at Michum with a smirk on his face. Michum stared at the elephant with a deep glare and sniffed.

“Funny.”

The elevator dinged, and the elephant and hyena were greeted to a large, spacious area teeming with pirates and mercenary wolves. Both creatures stepped out of the elevator with wide, malicious grins on their faces.

“SUCK A DICK, DUMB-SHITS!!!” Tully screamed.

And then both beasts proceeded to unload on all of the wolves, with the elephant screaming battle cries the entire time. His Gatling gun was firing so quickly that some of the creatures were literally cut in half by all the bullets. Many of them didn’t even try to face Michum and Tully head-on; it was pointless. Glass shattered, columns were torn apart, blood, fat, feces, vomit, and bullet holes littered the area within seconds. The casings from Michum’s rifle and the Gatling gun rained down onto the floor, clinking noisily beneath the din. Some of the wolves hiding were cut down regardless; the walls offered little protection against the gun’s powerful bullets. By the time the wolves seemed to stop moving, Tully let go of the trigger and panted heavily. Michum waved his friend forward and they headed for the door up ahead. Michum heard another door opening and aimed for the staircase, where he emptied his gun onto three more mercenaries trying to ambush them. Tully spat on the floor and snorted.

“Motherfuckers,” he growled.

“We gotta keep going; there might be other civilians trapped around here. And be careful with that! You might hit someone other than these pirates!”

“I seriously doubt anyone else is in this hotel besides all these foul-smelling wolves.”

Tully and Michum reached the double-doors up ahead, where they found themselves inside another very large atrium where the wolves were mercilessly killing all the hostages or police officers trying to fight back.

“…I stand corrected.”

Michum aimed carefully, taking out two wolves who were trying to force themselves on top of a vixen and her pup. The mother grabbed her pup and sprinted out the door, whilst Michum killed another wolf to his left, only to run out of ammo. He tossed the gun to the floor and switched to only his beam sword. The hyena sprinted forward and sliced another wolf in half, but not before the canine killed the civilian on the floor. Tully aimed carefully and fired in bursts, only killing two mercenaries before aiming to the right and mowing down a few beasts hiding behind a kiosk. One of the wounded officers picked up a handgun and helped out the two skaters. He shot at the wolves and shoved some of the innocent beasts towards the door, telling them to escape.

“Everyone go! We’ll handle—”

The officer gurgled after he was shot in the throat and face. Tully swore to himself before he pointed his Gatling gun to the left and gunned down a few more mercenaries. Michum on the other hand started to use his beam sword to take out all of his foes. The hyena thrust his sword forward and impaled a wolf in the stomach before jerking himself around and waving his beam sword at three wolves, cutting their heads off with no effort at all. The hyena ran forward and hopped over a metal bench, where he slammed down onto the floor and sliced one of the wolves in half. The group of creatures the wolf was about to slaughter all stood up from the floor and began to head for the exit door. Michum waved more of the creatures towards the exit before he and Tully heard more violent screams in the distance. The two beasts saw several civilians running towards the exit, only to be cut down by a group of mercenaries who were trying to slaughter the remaining hostages. 

“Shit!”

“GET DOWN!”

Those still alive threw themselves onto the floor and covered their heads and ears. Tully pointed his Gatling gun at the group of hostile wolves up ahead and cut most of them down, moments before his Gatling gun stopped releasing any bullets at all. Tully looked down at his giant weapon and blinked twice.

“Shit.”

Tully dropped his Gatling gun and swiped one of the shotguns off the floor. He walked forward, his heavy feet booming into the floor, as he headed deeper into the hotel, slaughtering a few more wounded wolves. Michum finished bifurcating two beasts before he exhaled and huffed twice.

“Go. Everyone out! Head downstairs; try to find a way outta the city!”

The hostages didn’t hesitate. They all got up and started to run towards the exit as soon as possible. After all the innocents headed out of the spacious area on the floor, Michum panted and finished off the last few wolves who were trying to retrieve their fallen weapons from the floor. After they were all gone, Michum huffed and pointed forward. The two heroes burst through another set of double doors and found themselves inside a corridor filled with windows and a path leading over to the staircase. The two creatures were about to proceed when Tully’s radio emitted more static.

“Y’all okay?” Tracey asked.

The elephant picked up his radio and laughed. “Oh yeah! We’re mowin’ ‘em down too fast to keep count!”

“What about you, Mich?”

“I’m doin’ good, Trace. We’re moving to the eighth floor now.”

“Good. Take care of the goons in the staircase. And watch the windows. I think there—”

Michum noticed it too late. A red laser dot sight shined through the pane right against Tully’s body. Tully shouted and fell to the floor just as the window shattered. The elephant coughed and gasped as he lied down, while Michum rushed forward and dragged the elephant to safety behind the wall. The hyena panted as he spoke into Tully’s radio.

“Dammit—they got snipers across from us! Tully’s down!”

“Shit. Is he all right?!”

“There’s…there’s a fuckin’ bullet in my ribcage, Trace.”

Michum blinked. “Yeah, he’ll make it. But any one of them could blow our heads off if we aren’t careful. You gotta take ‘em out for us!”

“Okay. Just give me a minute; I’ll let you know when you can move.”

Tracey lowered her radio and bashed the butt of her rifle against one of the window panes. After it shattered, the okapi pointed her gun outside and aimed carefully. She took a few deep breaths and examined all the rooftops and windows that were left open across the street. Tracey spotted one of the red laser sights and exhaled as she glanced at one of the snipers aiming on the floor below her. She caught sight of a wolf in camouflage sticking his head out the window and proceeded to fire. The wolf’s head exploded into mush, and Tracey exhaled as she turned and found another wolf crouching on one of the rooftops. She fired at him as well, tearing a hole through his abdomen and ruining a good amount of his ribcage and stomach lining. As she began to find more targets, the okapi noticed that some of the laser sights were shining around her floor as well. One of the window panes shattered, and the okapi shouted as she ducked and began to walk away while crouched.

“You’re good! Move up; they’re trained on me now!”

Michum did as the okapi advised. Tully groaned as he rolled onto his big belly and stood back up. Holding his midriff, the elephant panted and groaned as he limped behind Michum. The door up ahead burst open, forcing Michum to run forward and slice some of the wolves apart with his handy beam sword. Tully collapsed to the floor again and coughed up a small amount of blood. 

“Just hang on, buddy! I’ll patch you up in a second!”

Tully tried to get back up, only to shout again when another sniper bullet whizzed through a glass pane, tearing through one of Tully’s giant ears. Michum finished cutting a wolf’s stomach open before he crouched back down and got Tracey on the radio. 

“Trace! Could use your help now!”

“Hold on, hold on!”

Tracey broke another glass pane and pointed outside at the other assailants across the street again. Only this time around, the other wolves were smart enough to know that someone else was targeting them. Tracey only had enough time to take out one wolf before she was forced to switch positions yet again. The okapi emptied her magazine and replaced it with a fresh one, then swore when she accidentally stepped on glass. She went for the middle pane this time and started to shoot at a roaming wolf on one of the adjacent rooftops. After a frustrating struggle, she shot the wolf in his leg, and then put a hole in the side of his head.

“You’re clear! Get up…that isn’t you guys running up the stairs, is it?”

“No. Why?”

“Oh, FUCK!”

Tracey dropped her radio and pointed at the door as it swung open. She started to shoot at the wolves storming the hallway with her sniper rifle, only to realize that there were too many for her to take out on her own. She turned around and resumed sprinting for different cover, leaving her radio behind. As she ran from the wolves, she dropped another frag grenade behind her, covering her ears as the deafening explosion rocked the whole floor. Then the okapi started to run down another corridor. She checked all the doors she could find, swearing upon realizing that they were all locked. The okapi pointed her rifle at one of the doorknobs again and shot off the lock. After it was gone, she shoved her way inside and slammed the door. She found herself inside one of the storage closets filled with shelves consisting of dozens of cleaning supplies. The okapi grunted as she tried to tilt one of the metal shelves over, only for a burly wolf to snarl as he bashed at the door with his muscle-bound shoulder. Tracey shouted as she was knocked over and the shelf was knocked in the other direction, spilling bleach and paper towels all over the floor. Tracey inhaled sharply as she pointed her rifle forward and took out another two wolves running her way. The okapi removed the magazine and frowned when she realized that she was out of ammo.

“No. Fuckin’ shit—not now!”

The okapi turned and ran towards the back of the room, hoping there was some sort of air vent or secret passage she could use to escape from the wolves. She found a small vent near the floor in the back of the room and started to grab it with her hands. After realizing the vent was screwed on tight, she started to bash at the grate with the butt of her rifle.

“C’mon, please. Please!”

“Pryllic, I got the bitch! We got her!”

Tracey panicked and went for her grenade. She didn’t even have to turn around. The okapi pulled the pin. And screamed when the wolf commander fired at her five times. Tracey went down, scraping the wall with her nails as she tried to stay up. As her body collapsed, the panting commander stomped towards her and looked at her body. Just to make sure she was dead, the furry beast shot at her corpse six more times, making sure at least three of the bullets went through her head. The panting commander wiped some of the sweat from his forehead before he kicked at her corpse once again to be sure. The wolf used his footpaw to turn Tracey’s body onto its back. Then the wolf heard a faint _clunk_ and looked down. The grenade was lying right beside Tracey’s body.

“FFFFFUUUUU—”

The entire storage room was obliterated. What was left of the wolf commander was charred or blown into several little pieces. All the wolves who were about to follow the commander inside shouted and were knocked over as the door was blown off its hinges. The coughing wolves slowly got back up and dusted themselves off, moments before Pryllic messaged one of the mercenaries again.

“What’s going on?! We just felt the building rumbling up here!”

One of the wolves coughed. “Think one of the intruders had a grenade, sah! We got ‘em, but not before they took out Commander Krill.”

“Shit…how many intruders are left?”

“Dunno. We’ll keep searching the floors! Out.”

___________________

Michum exhaled after he dropped Tully inside one of the bathrooms and locked the door. As Tully continued to bleed out on the floor, Michum panted and tore the first aid kit off the wall.

“You’re gonna be fine. Just stand up and take your shirt off.”

The elephant reached up and grabbed the sink counter, using it to pull his body back up. He gritted his teeth and leaned against the wall, moments before he reached down and removed his green shirt. After he took it off, Michum looked at the pachyderm’s bare torso and inhaled sharply.

“Damn…think the bullet’s stuck in there.”

“Just wrap it up in gauze; I’ll live.”

Michum removed the gauze from the first aid kit, along with a few other bits of medical equipment. He tossed the gauze over to the elephant, who exhaled as he started to wrap the bandages around his torso and chest. After he cut the gauze off, the hyena inserted the syringe into a small bottle of clear fluids and extracted a sufficient amount of the fluids.

“What…what’s that?”

“Um, it says ‘Deus ex machina.’”

“Gimme.”

Tully snatched the syringe from Michum’s paws and stuck the tiny syringe into his chest. Then he depressed the plunger and filled his body with all the fluids. Tully let out a strange gurgling noise as his body shook for a few seconds. And then he stopped and coughed before standing tall next to his friend.

“Feel better?”

“Yeah, cool. Awesome actually! Think that was adrenaline or something.”

“I don’t think adrenaline works—”

“Anyways, did Tracey respond?”

Michum grabbed his radio and started to speak to the okapi again. “Dunno. Hey, Trace! There still snipers out there?! …Trace?”

All the hyena heard on the other end was static. The hyena rubbed his nose and waited for a moment before messaging her again.

“Tracey, come in. Where are you? You heading back downstairs again? Trace!”

Tully’s ear flopped as he heard more stomping outside. He quickly shushed the hyena until the stomping outside quieted down. Tully pressed his ear against the door and heard more chatter outside. Michum gripped his beam sword tightly but didn’t wave it so the beam wouldn’t emit too much noise. After the wolves stopped talking for a moment, Tully exhaled and moved away from the door.

“Think they left,” Tully said.

“Good…that’s good,” Michum said quietly.

Tully turned around and stared at Michum as the hyena retracted the beam on his sword and leaned against the sinks. Michum scratched his cheek before the elephant exhaled and rubbed his stomach.

“You didn’t get shot, did you?”

“No…” the hyena muttered. “Just…what do you think? What…what happens after this? What do we do?”

“We rebuild, I guess. I mean…it’ll take a while before everything’s back to normal…but hey. Um, we’ll—”

“Carson, Ajax, Kelly and Kinzly are dead. All these people are dead; all the places we spend our time at are probably wrecked. How are we just…the fuck do we do? How do we get past this?”

“We just do, I guess. Mm…what else do we do?”

Michum shook his head. “Just keep moving. But what happens when we stop? We _can’t_ keep moving; at some point we gotta stop. So what happens when we stop and think about—”

“We just get through it. We get past all this shit…just live with it. A lot of people gotta live through shit they didn’t wanna do; shit they regretted. But they got through it. And we will too.”

“…Will we?”

Tully stared at the hyena and blinked before he leaned against the wall and started to ponder as much as his hyena friend. The elephant rubbed his head and snorted.

“I don’t know…”

___________________

Pryllic started to run around the hallways when he heard the sound of planes rushing overhead. The blue wolf stopped running after hearing faint booms outside and frowned.

“No…”

Pryllic finally walked over to one of the shattered windows and spotted various explosions taking place out in the streets. He leaned forward as the smell of smoke started to fill his lungs, mere moments before he spotted three fighter jets speeding through the skies up above. Two of the jets dropped their payloads into the street, levelling some of the buildings and causing dozens of fires, burning everything in their path. The wolf swore quietly as he backed away from the broken window pane.

“No!”


	15. Final Countdown

The dragon reappeared on the roof of the hotel. Lyle hopped off the giant beast’s back after hearing what was happening in the building and stormed down to the penthouse on the top floor. But when he got there, the only ally he found was the half-wolf, half-machine creature known as Pryllic panting and pacing back and forth with worry. 

“C-captain! They’re bombing the city!”

“I can see that, shit-face! The dragon will take care of it—all we gotta worry about are these clowns killin’ all my pirates!” 

The elevator at the other end of the spacious floor dinged. As soon as the doors opened, two wolves’ bodies toppled onto the floor. Pryllic and Captain Lyle Krinkor stared at the bodies before they looked up and spotted Tully and Michum scowling at the two of them. The skaters walked out of the elevator slowly and approached the two canines, causing Lyle to smirk.

“You gotta be shittin’ me. You…you seriously have to be fuckin’ kidding me!” Lyle chuckled. “This? _This_ is the assailants that have been pickin’ off my army across the city?!”

“ _These_ ,” Michum corrected. “If you’re gonna insult me, at least learn some fuckin’ grammar.”

The captain shook his head. “This shouldn’t take long then. I’m sure Dolan put up a good fight, but that fat fuck’s got nothing on me! Now please, don’t shit your pants when I kill you, kay? I already had to deal with your skunk friend’s bladder after I ripped his throat out with my teeth.”

Tully snarled as he began to stomp across the penthouse floor. He kicked one of the chairs aside and removed his sword from its sheathe while Michum sprinted in front of him and stopped him.

“Hold up. Let’s do it together—no reason to do this shit one at a time.”

Michum tossed all his guns and other weapons on the floor before he twirled his beam sword in his paws. He activated the weapon with a loud electric swish, and the beam started to hum gently as the hyena held it firmly. Lyle stared at the elephant armed with a broadsword and the hyena wielding a beam sword and wiggled his nose. Then he leaned against the counter within the penthouse apartment’s kitchen and gestured for Pryllic to move forward.

“You have a go at ‘em. I’ll just watch for now.”

“Ca-captain, I think it’s best if we both—”

“What did I _just_ say, Pryllic?”

The half-metal wolf looked at his captain before he turned around and faced the duo. He blinked and removed his large sword from its sheathe as well and pointed it at the two skaters. Michum and Tully looked at each other before blinking and stepping in unison.

“You go left—”

“—I go right!”

Michum and Tully let out a vicious battle cry as they sprinted towards the wolf. Pryllic scowled and gripped his sword tightly before the two beasts broke apart. Michum went for Pryllic on the left while Tully went for the right. Pryllic yowled as he jerked his arms to the left and parried the hyena’s attack, then spun around and slammed his sword into Tully’s oversized weapon. The force of the impact caused Tully to nearly drop his sword; it rang in his hands as the elephant stumbled and nearly fell down. Pryllic ran over to Michum and started fighting him head-on, swinging his sword violently left and right, up and down. Michum backed away slowly until he was nearly pressed against a drawer; he rolled to his left as Pryllic swung the sword down, causing it to smash through the wood. The blue wolf swore as he tried to remove the weapon; the blade was firmly lodged inside the dresser. Tully recovered from the attack earlier and rushed towards the blue wolf. Just as Tully was about to impale him, the canine removed the sword and twirled it around, slicing at the elephant’s arm.

Michum ran for Pryllic, who immediately turned and started to back away. The wolf’s sword clinked as Michum’s sword hummed and popped each time the hyena smashed it against his foe’s weapon. The hyena ducked twice when Pryllic tried to chop his head off and proceeded to punch Pryllic in the groin. Then the hyena kicked at the canine’s stomach, causing Pryllic to bend over. Michum raised his sword to chop off Pryllic’s head, but he wasn’t fast enough. Pryllic swiped at Michum’s legs, cutting just below his right knee and making the hyena shout. Tully roared as he stomped towards Pryllic again. The wolf raised his sword to defend himself while Tully quickly smacked his broadsword down at him. Even as he blocked, Pryllic started to pant when the elephant began to whale on him, using his giant broadsword as though it were a baseball bat. Pryllic shouted when Tully eventually clipped the wolf’s right ear in half, causing Pryllic to shout. The wolf backed away from the elephant, huffing and breathing heavily as he grasped his bleeding ear. The wolf removed his paw and started to walk around slowly, scowling as he observed the hyena and elephant.

“Anytime now,” Lyle snarled.

Pryllic looked at the brown wolf with folded arms and exhaled. He kicked the living room’s footstool forward and screamed as he jogged forward and hopped on top of it. Then he jumped into the air and swung his sword down, hoping he’d be able to chop Michum or Tully in half. Both creatures side-stepped the wolf; Pryllic only succeeded in cutting the couch in half. The wolf recovered from his failed attack and immediately parried Michum from the right. But he wasn’t quick enough to counter the elephant’s broadsword. Pryllic shouted as he turned and felt the giant sword penetrating his flesh and scraping against his bones. The wolf wheezed and coughed as he tried to strike the elephant with his own sword. But Tully was smart enough to hop backwards as the wolf tried to strike at him. Michum walked over to the half-metallic wolf and stared at the creature’s body. Pryllic’s breath was hitching; he couldn’t stop hyperventilating as he tried to remove the broadsword. The wolf whined softly as he dropped his sword and gripped the handle of the broadsword with both paws. He grunted with effort as he removed the blade from his gut, and then collapsed and started to bleed out on the floor. Pryllic reached over and picked up his sword again, refusing to give in so easily.

“C’mon now, it’s like you ain’t even trying!” Tully shouted.

Michum flicked his eyes at Tully before looking down at the wolf. “Stay down. No need to keep fighting a hopeless battle.”

“NO! No…I-I won’t…I won’t lose…not to…”

Pryllic collapsed again, this time falling to one knee. He was bleeding profusely; all the crimson-colored fluids were oozing down his trousers and dripping onto the floor. At the rate he was going, he’d bleed out before he even had the chance to slay either of the creatures. Lyle could see how wounded the blue wolf was and sighed with frustration. He moved away from the bar and unfolded his arms, ready to fight the heroes himself.

“They’re right, Pryllic. Don’t embarrass yourself anymore.”

“Ca…captain, please…I’m sorry…I tried.”

Pryllic lowered his ears and released the sword from his paws. Lyle walked beside the blue wolf and smiled tenderly. He then reached over and rubbed the wolf’s scalp gently.

“I know you did. It’s okay…I’ll take it from here.”

It happened before either of them could figure out why. Lyle removed one of his dual swords from his back. Then he swiped it across and cut Pryllic’s head clean off. His body fell to the floor with a huge thud, unleashing large amounts of blood all over the carpet and hardwood. The captain stared at Pryllic’s head and snorted as he kicked it towards Tully and Michum. The hyena stared at the captain and scowled.

“That wolf just sacrificed his life for you. His _life_. You are aware of that, right?”

“Yeah. I’m also aware of how bad my breath is, but that don’t mean I plan on brushing my teeth anytime soon.”

“What the hell kinda pirate treats his soldiers like that? What kind of monster invades a city and kills and rapes everyone in sight for his own entertainment?!”

The captain snorted. “You fool. Do _none_ of you understand what it’s like to have the perfect bone in your mouth? Do _none_ of you realize how much fun chaos and destruction is? When you play your little video games, all you care about is killing as many things as possible, about blowing shit up, about shooting shit. Did at no point— _at no point_ —did you twats ever scratch your head and say, ‘Oh, wait…now how much fun would it be if I did this for real’?”

“So that’s all you are: some oversized mutt who played too many violent video games as a pup?” Tully sneered.

Lyle huffed with annoyance and rolled his eyes. “Why must _everything_ be Freudian to you?”

The brown wolf shook his head and shrugged. “Fuck it. You wanna see me as a giant wolfpup who thinks the world is just a playground he wants to destroy, fine. Because as far as I’m concerned, all _you_ are to me are two hunks of meat I intend to feast on tonight!”

The brown wolf removed his second sword and charged. The other two creatures backed away and shouted as the captain slammed his swords into their weapons hard, causing the broadsword to ring and the beam sword to hum. Michum snarled as he tried to cut off the captain’s hand, only for Lyle to flip backwards and kick at Pryllic’s head again just as Tully ran towards him. The elephant shouted as he tripped over the severed head and fell flat on his stomach, his sword flying from his hands. Lyle sprinted towards the elephant and snarled as he tried to slice his head off. Tully rolled away and picked his sword back up while Michum swung his sword around and tried to hit Lyle. The hyena jumped and spun diagonally, looking like a helicopter as its blades moved and tried to shred Lyle’s body to pieces. The brown wolf backed away as he blocked all the attacks with his dual swords, the blades clacking as the beam sword popped. Michum landed on the floor and roared as he thrust forward and tried to impale the wolf. Lyle blocked with one sword, then swore as the sword went flying from his grasp towards the balcony window. Lyle used his free paw to punch the hyena in the jaw, then spun around and swiped at Michum’s back. The hyena howled as the sword ripped through his bandages and flesh with a meaty crunch.

“MICH!” Tully screamed.

Tully sprinted for the wolf next while the hyena slowed down and almost collapsed to his knees. The elephant’s trunk and tail flopped around as he furiously attempted to strike the wolf in the head with his giant sword. Lyle stared at the elephant as he backed away and parried the attacks. The pachyderm was getting sloppy, and he knew it. Lyle jumped up twice before ducking and rolling to his left. He picked up a stool and held it up to defend himself, but Tully sliced right through it. The brown wolf side-stepped the elephant, then yelped when he turned around and saw the hyena coming towards him. Lyle crouched low and swung his sword at Michum’s right footpaw, cutting at it so deeply he almost took the footpaw clean off. Michum yowled again as he tripped and banged his jaw against the bar, biting his tongue in the process. As the hyena lied on the floor bleeding, Lyle ran backwards and picked his second sword off the floor. Tully, furious over the way the sadistic wolf was beating him and his friend, violently threw his broadsword at the canine. Lyle shouted as he blocked, but the force of the impact made him drop one of his swords again.

Tully roared as he pounced on the wolf, grabbing him by the throat and choking the living daylights out of him. The wolf reached up and started to dig his thumb into Tully’s left eye. But the elephant kept squeezing. Lyle gagged and gurgled as the elephant squeezed so tightly that he nearly felt the bones in his neck popping. But the wolf didn’t give up. He pressed down harder, faster, until Tully yowled and loosened his grip. And then both creatures heard a vile squish, followed by nasty fluids that started to flow from the beast’s eye socket. Some of the fluids gushed out while the remainder of it oozed down Tully’s face. The elephant howled in pain and backed away, now blinded in one eye. The captain grabbed his neck and coughed violently before he collapsed and went for his swords. Michum panted as he stood up and limped towards the two, his maimed footpaw weighing him down. As Tully whined and tried to recover from his grievous wound, Lyle retrieved both swords and stomped towards the elephant. Tully had just enough time to look at the canine as he plunged one of his blades deep into his chest.

“TULLY!” Michum screamed.

The hyena tried to sprint towards the wolf, but the wolf went ahead and pushed Tully’s body towards the glass screen door leading to the balcony outside. Tully gritted his teeth as he reached up and grabbed the wolf’s face. But just as he started to, Lyle impaled the elephant with his other sword, this time moving it downwards diagonally and piercing through his liver and stomach lining. Both blades went through the glass, causing it to crackle as the pane weakened. The wolf grunted as Tully pushed him backwards, and then yowled as he tackled the elephant through the glass pane. The glass shattered into hundreds of shards; both beasts collapsed outside on the balcony, with the wolf rolling towards the pool. Michum had just reached the outside when he spotted the elephant bleeding out as he lied on his back. Lyle quickly stood up and sprinted for his swords. Michum panted and waited for the wolf to get close. Then he thrust his beam sword forward, running the captain right through his midriff. Lyle shouted in pain, but not before he tackled the hyena forward into the wall. Michum grunted and collapsed onto his stomach, whilst the wounded wolf swore vehemently and removed both swords from Tully’s chest. After falling down, the hyena noticed that he dropped his beam sword and deactivated it. He rolled over onto his stomach, lying on some of the glass as he moved. Meanwhile, Lyle stared at the spotted creature as he began to move.

“Aww, you drop your precious beam sword?”

Michum panted as he started to crawl forward towards the cylindrical weapon. The captain spotted the weapon before he did and snickered as he walked towards it.

“Is this it? This what you want?”

Michum growled. “Fuck you…”

Lyle snickered as he pointed to the beam sword and grinned. “C’mon now, I know you can make it! Just a little further…li’l bit more…”

Michum ignored the wolf and continued to drag his body towards his beam sword. Even as he approached the wolf’s footpaws, he didn’t slow down or look up at the beast. He dragged himself along the glass and grabbed the beam sword with his left paw. And then grunted when Lyle stepped on his paw firmly and crouched down. The wolf exhaled and shook his head.

“Oh dear. Just not fast enough, were you?”

“…Go on, then. Do it.”

“No. I told you, I wanna see that look in your eyes, that look that tells me you failed, that all your plans were pointless. _Then_ …then I’ll kill you.”

Michum closed his eyes and sighed. The wolf was right. He had failed. He was going to die. And there was nothing more he could do about it. He finally gave in, told himself that there was no point anymore. So the hyena looked up at the captain with hopeless, wide, watery eyes. Lyle inhaled sharply before he exhaled and licked his lips.

“There it is. Now be sure you scream as loud—”

Michum roared as he jerked his right arm upwards at the wolf. And then he slashed at his face and eye with a shard of glass he picked up when he was lying on the floor. Lyle screamed and fell backwards as he went temporarily blind in his left eye and started bleeding from his face. Michum hurriedly grabbed his beam sword and activated it as the wolf rested on the floor. Still wounded, Lyle moaned and tried to pick up the swords he just dropped. But just as he crawled towards them, the wolf gasped and felt a pain going through his back. He heard the laser humming behind him and whimpered as he tried to move. The moment Michum removed his beam sword, the wolf started to stand up, staggering towards the edge of the balcony.

“No…no, please. Wait!”

Lyle shouted again when Michum slashed him across the spine, leaving a grisly mark on his back.

“That was for Kelly.”

Lyle collapsed beside the railing on the balcony and started to breathe heavily. “C-C’mon now! We-we can…we can work this out! We can—”

Lyle shrieked when Michum waved his sword at him again and sliced off his right paw. The wolf fell on his bottom and started to crawl backwards, away from the hyena. 

“That was for Kinzly.”

Lyle turned around and tried crawling again, only to feel the pain in his body acting up. He whimpered and groaned as his stomach rumbled. And then he whined and lowered his ears as he began to soil himself. The hyena heard the muffled crackles and flatulence and turned his head away when the foul stench of Lyle’s bowel movement reached his nostrils.

“There it is…how’s it feel? I bet you don’t envy Kinzly when he pissed himself, now do ya?”

The captain didn’t answer. He continued to crawl towards the railing of the balcony, only to yowl when Michum walked behind him and slashed his tail off with his beam sword.

“That one was for Carson.”

“Please…we-we can…we can talk…”

Michum retracted his beam sword and pretended to show the wolf mercy. Then he walked over to the twin swords the wolf dropped on the floor and picked them back up. Lyle reached up and grabbed the railing, huffing and whimpering as he got onto his weary legs. Michum nonchalantly walked over to the wolf and ran one of the swords through his midriff.

“For Ajax.”

Michum raised the other sword and jammed it through Lyle’s chest, causing the wolf to gurgle as he coughed up blood.

“For Tracey.”

Michum let go of the swords as both of them protruded from the canine’s body. Then he activated his beam sword again and shoved it forward right against Lyle’s groin. The wolf shrieked as the hyena burned right through his testicles and groin, rupturing his scrotum entirely.

“For Tully.”

Michum removed his beam sword and watched as the wolf collapsed to the floor. The hyena looked down at the subdued captain as he whimpered and sobbed, his eyes watering, hoping that the skater would show some form of mercy. All Michum could smell was the wolf’s burning crotch, his soiled pants and the blood oozing from his body. The hyena looked out at the city after hearing more jets whooshing past his head. The swift planes dropped more bombs onto the city; somewhere in the distance, the robot dragon was roaring and shrieking as the bombers tried to destroy it. Michum blinked. The military had arrived and were resorting to their final option. Then the hyena looked down at the whining captain and grabbed him by his ears.

“Up. Get your ass up,” he growled.

Michum slammed the wolf against the railing before he turned the beast around and pointed into the streets.

“Look. Look at all your plans. Look at how your carefully crafted schemes went down the toilet.”

Lyle couldn’t help but hear more gunfire and faint screams in the distance. He didn’t have anyone left. All his lieutenants were dead, his dragon wasn’t coming to his rescue, and his soldiers were being bombed to smithereens by the military. Lyle whimpered and sobbed again as he shook his head. All of it _was_ going to waste.

“Ironic. All you cared about was destroying this city, yet when you see that someone else is destroying the city for you, you start crying like a little bitch.”

“I just…I just wanted a new empire. I wanted…wanted pirates to worship me.”

“No. You wanted destroy everything in your path. You wanted to commit genocide and take all the survivors as slaves, as your own little playthings! That’s doesn’t make you a leader or a god. That just makes you a dictator. That makes you _scum_.”

“Dictator…heh. Yes…I-I would’ve been a great…great dictator.”

Michum turned the wolf around and noticed that the wolf wasn’t sobbing anymore. He was grinning eerily. The hyena gritted his teeth as he felt a gentle wind blowing in his direction, and the wolf started to breathe heavily.

“Please…can’t you see it? Can’t…can’t you see what…what joy I can bring? A world riddled with…with destruction. Chaos. Anarchy. …Death. Wouldn’t…wouldn’t you like that? Wouldn’t you want…to be part of that?”

Michum ignored him and snorted. “And this one’s…this is for me.”

The hyena tackled the wolf as hard as he could. The wolf yelped as he tumbled over the side of the railing. And then he screamed as vocally as he could when gravity took place and he started to fall. Michum looked over the railing and watched as the canine slowly became smaller and smaller the more he descended. And then the screaming was replaced with a sickening, crunching splat when the wolf’s body hit the pavement. He couldn’t quite make out the creature’s body, but even Michum knew no one could survive a fall from such a height. The hyena blinked a few times before he huffed deeply and turned around. Michum retracted his beam sword and limped his way towards Tully, who was still bleeding out on the floor. The hyena sat down beside the elephant, wincing before he started to cradle Tully’s head.

“Hey…hey, buddy.”

Tully opened his eye slowly and looked at the hyena. “Mich?”

“Yeah man…it’s me.”

“Hmph…is…what happened to—”

“He’s dead. Fucker complained about the accommodations of the room, so I kinda-sorta got a little angry and tossed him off the balcony.”

Tully smiled slowly and chuckled weakly. “Damn. Makes me wonder what you’d do if I insult your cooking.”

The two friends paused and stared at each other before Michum heard more violent booms in the distance. The hyena panted as he looked at the elephant and exhaled.

“C’mon buddy. We gotta get outta here.”

“Mich…”

“You can walk it off. I know it hurts; I know. That asshole nearly cut my footpaw off. But we can—we can find a chopper…a-a car; something that’ll lead us out of the city. I think…I think the military’s gonna blow up the whole city. Kill off the pirates and that dragon for good. Guess they don’t care about nuking a few million people. But we still have time! We can still—”

“I’m not coming.”

“…What?”

“Mich…look at me,” Tully said, his voice cracking.

“It’s…it’s not too bad, buddy. It’s just—”

“I can’t…I can’t even stand. Everything’s cold…”

Michum whimpered and started to tear-up. “Shut up. You…you can’t do this to me. There’s no one left, Tully.”

“Mich—”

“THERE’S NO ONE LEFT! Everyone’s…everybody’s dead. You’re all I have left…you can’t leave me too.”

Michum started sobbing gently. Tully looked up at the hyena with a watery and bloody eye and smiled at the spotted creature. He shook his head and sighed gently. “I’m not…leaving you, Mich. I’ll always be with you. …You know that.”

“No…”

Michum raised the elephant’s head and chest and hugged him tightly. The elephant mustered enough strength to put his arms around the creature’s back. More bombs began to explode in the background, but the noise wasn’t important to either of them anymore. All they cared about was spending one final moment with each other, even if they only had mere seconds.

“I’m sorry,” Michum wailed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you either.”

Tully exhaled. “Not…not your fault.”

The elephant’s grip started to loosen. “Hey…you…you think they’ll be…happy to see me again? Kelly and Ajax…the rest of them?”

Michum sniffled noisily and gripped the elephant tighter as he started to rock him slowly. “They’re…they’re gonna be thrilled, buddy.”

“Good…that’s good…” Tully said weakly.

Michum kept holding the elephant tightly until the elephant let go of the hyena. He let out a soft breath before he stopped moving and making noise. Michum opened his eyes and gasped. He took his head away from Tully and stared at the pachyderm’s face. He didn’t need to ponder what had happened anymore. Michum blinked twice and gently laid the elephant’s head down beside the pool. More tear drops fell from his eyeballs and ran down the side of his face. The hyena reached over and slowly closed the beast’s eyes before he exhaled. Afterwards, Michum stood up and limped over to the railing. He looked down at Lyle’s corpse again before gazing out into the burning city. The sun had finally set. All the choppers were gone, there was no way to cross the bridge, and the harbor was several miles away. The hyena sobbed again and gritted his teeth as he heard more bombs going off in the distance.

There was only one thing the hyena could do now…


	16. Take Us Back

The badger breathed heavily as he removed the ropes from the docks. He looked at the kangaroo as she sat calmly in the dinghy just outside the perimeter of the harbor. Rob panted as he tossed the ropes into the water and ran over to the boat.

“Guess they didn’t take all the boats. Lucky us, huh?”

Margot blinked and continued to look down. Rob’s ears lowered as the beast stayed silent and kept to herself. The burly beast leaned forward and put a paw on the kangaroo’s shoulder.

“We have to leave. You know that. I’ve seen this before…s’just collateral damage to them.”

Margot turned her head and glared at the badger as a few tear drops fell from her face. But she didn’t have the strength to fight or complain any longer. The roo blinked some tears away before she turned back around and looked down at the bottom of the dinghy again. Rob didn’t know what else to say, so he sat down beside her and started to rev the engine. After yanking on the cord a few times, the motor started to sputter and turned on. Then the badger gripped the steering handle behind him and started to guide the boat forward. Maybe there was nothing else to say. Maybe there was nothing else they could do. So both creatures stayed quiet as they rode away from the city limits. As both of them entered open waters, Rob and Margot turned around and took one last look at the city. At night, sometimes the city would be so active with life that it sparkled at a distance. But all the sparkles were replaced with black smoke and the orange gaze from all the bombs that dropped. It wasn’t until that very moment that the two creatures realized what they were leaving behind.

But this was the only way. That dragon was still out there, and so were some of the other pirates. If the dragon or pirates didn’t kill them, then the military’s bombs would. So Rob and Margot lowered their heads as they sailed forward, uncertain of the future that lied ahead.

___________________

Michum was surprised that it was all still intact. None of the bombs had maimed even a portion of the park. The hyena blinked and huffed as he limped around the concrete. Some bodies were spread around the park and a few of the fences were bent or had a few dead pirates littered around the metal structures. Michum blinked and glanced around at some of the park benches. As he stared at one of them, he ignored the stench of the dead and fires around him and started to wiggle his nose.

_Don’t eat that!_ Michum yelled.

_It’s a chocolate bar with pistachios in it! You really thing I’m gonna sit here and waste it?_

_You found that on the ground in an alleyway, Tully! It was soaking in juices from a dumpster!_

Michum stared at the bench and smiled. He shook his head and chuckled after hearing the voices in his head from one of his various earlier moments with his best friends. The hyena grunted as he dragged his bloody footpaw along the ground and winced as he tried to step down properly. The spotted creature collapsed beside one of the half-pipes and swore as he looked down at his bleeding footpaw. The hyena inhaled sharply before he heard someone in the background sighing.

_I told you, you gotta stop doing that_ , Tracey said. 

_It’s go big or don’t go at all, Trace! You know that! Ow, fuck…_

_Mich, keep it slow. No need to take on something you can’t chew._

Michum blinked as he envisioned the okapi reaching down and grabbing the hyena’s paw. He could still even see the tender smile on her face that day she helped him off the ground. Michum stood up and dusted himself off, then Tracey laughed as she ran in the opposite direction with her skateboard.

_C’mon, start off with the quarter-pipes instead!_

Michum grunted as he stood up for real and started to limp through the skate park again. Only this time, he stopped when he was near a set of handrails and a few trash cans.

_Hey babe! Check this shit out!_

Michum stared at the handrails and remembered Kelly standing in his exact same spot. Her boyfriend sprinted towards the grindrails before he tossed his skateboard down and skated for a few seconds. Then the reptile hopped up onto the rails and started to grind against the metal, emitting a few sparks in the process.

_Oh yeeeeeeeaaaaah, you fuckers ain’t got nuthin’—_

Carson yelped when he failed to jump on time. He tumbled off his skateboard and dove face-first against the trash cans. All three of them created a deafening din as the cans tipped over, spilling the contents all over the ground—which Carson ended up falling muzzle-first into. Michum chuckled quietly while he remembered Kelly laughing so hard that she literally fell on her back and had to hold her ribs. He turned and looked down at the spot Kelly fell at before turning and looking at the same three trash cans, fully aware of the exact spot where the crocodile fell. Michum slammed his palm against his face, still surprised at how stupid the crocodile had been that day. The hyena continued to stroll around the skate park before he found himself against a metal fence that gave a perfect view of the whole park. Michum quietly sat down on the gravel and stared at the various funboxes, ramps, quarter pipes, stairsets, and other features scattered across the area.

_Yeah, it’s beautiful, ain’t it, Kinz?_

_Eh, I seen better._

_Seen better?! Lookit dis shit! This place was born for skaters like us!_

Michum watched as the skunk elbowed the fox’s arm. _Course I know that, Jax! Just fuckin’ with ya!_

_Funny, Kinz. Very funny._

The hyena envisioned the two creatures sprinting down the park before they hopped onto their bikes and started to ride around some of the bowls. Michum’s smile started to fade. He thought all these visions would make him happier, but all he could think about were all these precious moments he’d never be able to savor again. The hyena closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them back up, they were watery. Michum sniffled as he pulled out his cell phone and started to scroll through his images. He stopped when he came across the one recent selfie Carson took of himself and the gang when they were at the gun shop earlier that day. He didn’t even remember Carson forwarding the photo to everyone else’s cell phones. Everyone seemed so determined and excited back then, even after Ajax had been killed. Michum sniffled again as two warm tears ran down his face. Both of the tear drops landed on his screen, and the hyena whimpered and wiped his nose. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, realizing that all of his friends were dead and would never come back. He placed his paw against the picture on his cell phone and whined softly. When he opened his eyes back up, he noticed that a giant bomber was slowly hovering above the city. Michum looked up, the plane’s giant shadow covering the skate park. Then the hyena scrolled through more images on his phone and found a short video showing him and all his friends. He pressed the play button and sniffled.

“Okay, good, that’s good! Now everyone stay still and say cheese!” Michum shouted.

“You can take a group selfie while you’re shooting a video with your phone?” Tully asked.

“It’s the future, Tull. Won’t be long before they invent toilets that’ll wipe your ass for you!”

“They did already. It’s called a bidet,” Kelly pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah. Y’all ready?”

“Ready!” the other six beasts shouted.

Everyone posed for Michum’s camera. He made sure he got everyone in the frame before he smiled widely and gestured everyone to do the same.

“Cheeeeeeese!”

“CHEDDAR!!!” Carson shouted, as he waved his arms and got in front of Tully and Ajax.

Michum lowered his phone and groaned. “Dammit—you’re blocking Ajax and Tully!”

“Yeah, and he said say ‘cheese’!” the fox shouted.

Carson grinned. “Cheddar _is_ cheese.”

“Whatever. Just do it again,” Michum barked.

Everyone posed again as the hyena got his camera ready.

“Cheeeeeeeeese!”

“MOT-ZA-RELLAAAAA!!!”

Michum and the others groaned, and the hyena was forced to lower his iPhone a second time over the crocodile’s exaggerated phrase.

“You did it again, Cars! Just—smile. Don’t even say anything. Shut your big-ass mouth and grin like an idiot like you always do.”

“All right, all right, damn! Spoil-sport.”

Michum kept watching the video and started to grin, already knowing what was about to happen next. The hyena gestured for everyone to pose again. The gang smiled widely.

“Cheeeeeeeeeeese!”

“A-CA-PELLAAAAA!!!”

“THAT’S NOT EVEN CHEESE, YOU DUMBASS!!!”

Michum almost dropped the phone from laughing so hard. He could hear everyone arguing and telling Carson to shut up on the phone’s video. Although he couldn’t remember the exact words everyone said, he remembered that everyone got into a brief tussle with Carson, which ended with Kelly strapping a muzzle over the crocodile’s gaping maw.

“Okay. Like they say, _fourth_ time’s the charm, right?” said Michum.

Michum stopped laughing and smiled as he watched the video. He didn’t care about the bomber hovering overhead, nor did he pay attention to the massive payload the pilot just released as it proceeded to carpet bomb the city block.

“CHEEEEEESE!!!” everyone said over the phone.

Michum heard Carson mumble in a muffled voice as he prepared to take the phone. As the hyena watched the video, he smiled and nodded.

“Cheese,” Michum said quietly.

In the video, the hyena took the photo. In reality, the hyena heard deafening explosions coming several yards away from where he sat. Michum stared at all the fires that seemed to materialize in thin air, vaporizing all the vehicles and buildings in the surrounding area. He could already feel the heat against his fur as the bombs got closer and closer to the skate park. He thought he’d start screaming or would break down and realize his horrific death was imminent. But all the hyena did was smile as the fires came closer to the skate park. He couldn’t even hear the bombs exploding anymore. All he could see were the various ramps and other sections of the skate park as they were destroyed and engulfed in smoke and flames. Michum looked down at his phone and the selfie he took, where all his friends were still alive and well, still happy and living a carefree life. 

And then the bombs finally reached him, and his body disappeared in the orange inferno…

___________________

Rob didn’t slow down. Even when he knew he was several miles away from the city, he kept sailing forward. The last thing he wanted was to get caught in a nuclear blast—which he knew the military was more than capable of causing. Margot didn’t say anything the entire time. She kept gazing at the water or the bottom of the tiny dinghy. Rob turned around and looked at the city’s limits for a brief moment and heard faint booms and saw more orange flashes in the distance. He was pleased, at the very least, that he couldn’t hear the dragon’s roars. Maybe they destroyed the mechanical beast. Maybe they didn’t. All the badger cared about was getting to safety before a nuke dropped. After the badger sailed for another few minutes, he realized that they were starting to sail around aimlessly and proceeded to let go of the steering handle. The boat sputtered a few times as it gradually slowed down and stopped. Rob exhaled as the dinghy started to bob in the middle of the ocean and rubbed his forehead.

“I think we’re clear. We should be safe out here.”

Margot didn’t say anything. She blinked and lifted her head as she looked around at all the water and how dark it was gradually becoming. She couldn’t hear anything besides the water sloshing around and Rob breathing heavily. The badger exhaled as he tried to relax on the boat, but everytime he leaned or stretched his legs, he ended up brushing Margot’s body or kicking her by mistake. The badger quickly brought his legs backwards and decided that he was better off sitting with his legs crossed to give the kangaroo some space. Rob scratched the back of his head and sniffed.

“I’m sure a boat or helicopter will find us soon. They’re prob…probably scanning the city limits for more survivors. We should be rescued soon. We’re not infected with anything; they won’t shoot on sight. They just want…we’ll be fine.”

Margot blinked and flicked her eyes at the badger. Then she turned her head and looked away. The badger looked around at all the weapons they had. Rob still had a handgun, and Margot had a small knife on her. The badger released the magazine cartridge from his handgun and looked inside. There were still plenty of bullets left. He blinked and shoved the magazine back inside before he huffed.

“Got some bullets left.”

Margot blinked and turned around. She stared at the badger before looking down at his handgun. Then she looked back up at the striped creature and sniffed.

“That’s what you think of me? _Really_?”

Rob shrugged. “You got that look. Wouldn’t blame you honestly.”

Margot huffed. “My best friend…my coworker, just got burned alive. I lost everything that I own. I have no job, no money—I don’t even have the photo of my grandmother and me smiling and standing beneath a pear tree in the summer. All I have is you, and this dirty-ass uniform from my shitty job delivering pizzas. And you…you wanna know what my first thought was when I jumped into this boat?”

“What?”

Margot paused. And then she chuckled. “At least I don’t have to worry about cleaning up the mold in the bathrooms before the health inspector arrives.”

Rob smiled while Margot started to laugh out loud. She covered her mouth for a moment as her eyes started to water. She didn’t understand why she was still laughing and sobbing at the same time, but that was what she was doing.

“Ohhhhhh, this day…this day.”

“Yeah. Wonderful.”

Margot sighed and wiped one of her tears away. “Let me ask you-you somethin’.” Margot paused and sniffled. “Um, you were in the war, right?”

“Yes.”

“…Is this normal? For us to be feeling this way? I mean, I was just laughing a moment ago, even though I know everything’s gone. I’m not crazy or anything am I?”

Rob shrugged. “Confused, maybe repressed. I’m sure you’ll have some breakdown later; it’s probably delayed. But I dunno…shit like this changes a person. You’re talking to someone who caught a friend of his masturbating over a pile of dead bodies.”

Margot stared at Rob with disgust. The badger scratched his head awkwardly.

“Yeah, I know; it horrified me too. Guy wasn’t into necrophilia or anything like that. He was just so…proud. He wanted to rub it in the enemies’ faces so much that he thought marking them with his seed would prove he was superior or something.”

Margot blinked. “That makes no fucking sense.”

Rob pointed out towards the city being bombed. “Does _that_ make sense? Does it make sense that a robotic dragon even exists? Does it…does it make sense that someone like you who’s done nothing wrong had to lose everything she loves dearly? …Does it make sense for a person like me to gun down a group of innocent cubs just because his commander ordered him to do it?”

Margot stared at the badger as he lowered his head shamefully. The kangaroo looked at the gun again and nodded slowly.

“Oh. _That’s_ why you kept the gun.”

Rob blinked. Margot reached over and quickly snatched the gun from the badger’s paws. She flung the weapon out into the water. Both creatures watched as the weapon disappeared in a matter of seconds. Rob lowered his ears and stared at the kangaroo.

“The hell was that for?”

“So neither of us tries to do something stupid.”

Margot took her knife and tossed it into the ocean as well. Defenseless, the two creatures sat in the boat and began to look around, hoping that someone would come by sooner than later. The kangaroo, just like Rob, gradually grew bored as the time dragged on and struggled to make herself comfortable within the dinghy. Eventually, she settled with sitting down in the same fashion as Rob and rubbed her scalp. She slapped her leg in frustration before hearing a few seagulls crying up above.

“Hmm. Butterflies.”

“No, those are seagulls.”

“I know. I’m just thinking about that stupid theory. Y’know, you spill a cup of water and don’t clean it up. Someone slips on it, breaks their back. Turns out the person who slipped was someone’s grandfather. Grandfather ends up in the hospital, dies, then his grandchildren inherit a shitload of money. So congratulations, you made a few cubs rich! …I mean, you killed an old man, but at least some kids are rich now!”

“This isn’t like that. We just got lucky.”

“No, this _is_ just like that. Only reason why I’m here is ‘cause of Deacon’s stomach. Heh…he was right after all.”

“How?” 

“We only stopped at the Macabre Grill ‘cause Deacon was damn near about to shit his pants and he didn’t wanna squat in an alleyway like I told him too. So then we stayed to get more food. Then we met you and that jerk of a tortoise. And…well, I’m still alive, aren’t I? City’s gone, but hey…still alive, right? That’s what’s important…right?”

“I suppose…”

Margot rubbed her head and lied down on the dinghy with her big footpaws hanging off the edge of the boat. “Maybe I should just rest for a bit…wake me up if you see any passing boats, all right?”

“Sure.”

Rob and Margot stayed silent for a while, with the latter resting in the dinghy attempting to find some form of sleep. As the kangaroo tried to sleep, Rob looked all around the ocean, hoping that a boat or some form of plane would finally come along to rescue them. But all he could see was the horizon growing even darker, almost to a point where everything became pitch-black. The badger blinked a few times and realized that he was just as tired as the kangaroo was. He exhaled as he leaned over on the dinghy and gradually lied down. Then he closed his eyes and waited, hoping that a boat would come.

___________________

Rob and Margot couldn’t remember whether it was a boat or a chopper. All they could recall were various beasts clad in military uniform hauling them up onto the vehicle. It wasn’t until sometime later that they fully woke up and found themselves on some form of medical ship, with dozens of doctors, soldiers, and other civilians being nursed in the main sector of the vessel. Rob winced when a doctor shined a light in the badger’s left eye.

“Do you remember your name?”

Rob grunted. “Yeah…yeah, it’s Robert.”

“Good. Do you remember how you got here?”

“I-I was…sleeping. Then I just remember hazy visions of me getting…now I’m here. What about…there-there was a kangaroo with me. Where is she?”

Margot groaned and rolled her eyes as she was shoved from behind a curtain wearing only a hospital gown. The marsupial looked at the soldier who shoved her and snorted.

“Do I really need to wear this shit? I don’t want everyone lookin’ at my ass when I bend over!”

“So don’t bend over,” the canine barked.

Margot flipped the soldier off before she walked over to where the badger was sitting. “Well, seems like you made it too.”

Rob looked up at the doctor and blinked. “Can you give us a minute? We just wanna talk for a bit.”

The doctor looked at the kangaroo and badger and nodded. “Sure. I’ll check on you later.”

Margot and Rob waited for the doctor to walk away before both creatures looked at each other.

“So.”

“So.”

Margot scratched her head. “Guess we made it.”

“Yeah.”

“…So what now?”

Rob exhaled. “Like I said…you got two good legs. So walk.”

Margot smiled and did the exact opposite of what the badger said. She groaned as she turned around and sat down on the stool beside Rob’s cot.

“I’ve just spent all damn day running from dragons and wolves and whatever the fuck else was attacking us. …Think it’s time to sit down, if you ask me.”

The badger looked at the kangaroo and smirked. “Yeah…suppose relaxing for a moment won’t hurt.”

Rob and Margot relaxed in their seats and stared at all the survivors being treated by the doctors. The two creatures finally took a moment to calm down and genuinely smile, glad that they were finally safe from all the pirates.


End file.
